Emerald in the Rough
by pyro-rocketeer
Summary: A non-massacre/non-Kyuubi attack/non-Obito-goes-insane AU where everything is mostly all right for Team Seven, well… except Sakura. Pairings? An itty bitty amount of Multisaku. Dark!canon Sakura. (July 22, 2016 - Abandoned, possible repost/rewrite coming soon.)
1. Chapter 1

Emerald in the Rough

Summary: A non-massacre/non-Kyuubi attack/non-Obito-goes-insane AU where everything is mostly all right for Team Seven, well… except Sakura. Pairings? An itty bitty amount of Multisaku. Dark!canon Sakura.

 **I own nothing**.

 **Read the author's note before you begin.**

 _A/N: Oh look, I did a summary._

 _So this is very dark!canon Sakura, okay well I'm not exactly expert at writing dark!canon more like fluffy dark!canon Sakura. Rated for blood, descriptive blood, suicide, bullying, torture, neglect, implications of abuse, emotional trauma, grammar issues (I hope not)…and a hint of multisaku (spread the poison). Let's go with M to be safe for now. Probably a one-shot/two-shot/three-shot/maybe more. Let's see how far this freight train goes till it skids off the tracks, or blows up, or comes to a gentle and complete stop._

 _Reviewers get to see under Kakashi's mask. Honestly, that tease._

 _And before I end off, this is not canon compliant- not entirely. Some people might have different purposes, some might not. I'm just the puppeteer playing around with them. Hope you guys like it._

* * *

In a little cottage, a little ways off from the busier parts of the mighty village of Konohagakure no Sato, lived a newly wedded couple. The Haruno family had purchased a simple cottage on the outskirts of the civilian district. In fact, the position of the cottage also allowed Haruno Mebuki to plant a large garden, full of flowers and pretty things.

Haruno Mebuki's garden was admired by all of their neighbours, if not envied. From the chrysanthemums to the well-tended roses and to the single Sakura tree, under which they took refuge from the blazing sun.

She would clasp her muddy fingers together, her white sun-dress fluttering over her enlarged belly.

"Isn't it wonderful, Kizashi?"

And Kizashi Haruno would nod mutely, he had long since given up on trying to tear Mebuki away from gardening while she was pregnant with their child.

"I'm pregnant, not invalid!" She screeched at him, "Now get me a tub of strawberry ice-cream. The baby's hungry." And that was that.

He sipped his tea cautiously and spat out the scalding liquid onto the green, freshly manicured grass.

Haruno Mebuki would rub her swollen belly with a contented sigh as she admired her handiwork. Her head buzzed with future plans for the garden, her sister would be so green, green with envy. She smirked at her little joke and wiped some sweat off her forehead, accidentally smudging her face with mud, in turn.

"Sweetheart, I would like to name our child Sakura."

Kizashi really, could do nothing but nod his head as he tried to cool off his tongue in the spring breeze. He vaguely noted later, at the hospital bedside when the child in front of him bore a wisp of his atrocious pink hair, the name was painfully uncreative. Because both, his mother and sister were named Sakura. And her mother before that, and then his great grandmother. They lost count after that.

But Kizashi, like his father and his grandfather and his great grandfather scratched the back of their heads and nodded with a shrug.

But Mebuki seemed content, kissing her child's head, thinking of all the pink dresses that would look awfully gorgeous on her, "-or perhaps white! I think red would clash with her hair nicely as well." And the child responded with more painful bawling from her pink raw mouth.

And that's how Haruno Sakura the fifth was born.

* * *

Haruno Sakura.

"Your forehead is so big, I bet they'll use it as target practice. Wanna try?" There was a glint of metal in the sun.

A spring child.

"Hey Ami! Sasuke-kun is here!"

" _Nani?"_

Destined to push up above the ground, no matter _what_ the circumstance.

"Move it, billboard brow!"

She felt her chin scrape against the rough surface of the pavement, and the impact muddied her outfit with wet dirt. She sat up with a watery eyes, and held the folds of her new dress out in front of her, trying to scrub out the stains with her fingernails.

And it was such a pity too, because she wanted to wear this dress especially to impress her dear Sasuke-kun. Today was mostly kunoichi extracurricular, a day where girls had collectively decided that they would wear their prettiest outfits without having to get sweaty and dirty from training (or gain Iruka-sensei's wrath over dress-code).

She looked up as the boy with black hair, blue shirt and white shorts was being crowded by several girls. He briefly looked to her. She flicked her head around, wishing that the earth would open up and just swallow her whole. Her face burned with embarrassment as she scampered off her knees.

But then he turned his head away with an air of whatever it was those Uchiha held themselves with, and passed by her.

Back then, it seems like our little Sakura-chan was completely smitten with the clan brat. She thought his eyelashes were longer than hers and he looked awfully girly. She liked that. Or maybe it was a growing trend in their little academy class-room to like the boy, and a sore painful trend it was for poor young Iruka-sensei. Because young kunoichi were far more interested in the art of Sasuke-kun than the art of being a ninja of the mighty Konohagakure no Sato.

Sasuke-kun slouched slightly. Several girls swooned and fell over. Sakura's cheeks pinked as she shyly peered at him from the corner of her eye.

Their teacher snapped a chalk against the black board. It was the fifth chalk that day. Poor Iruka-sensei really should have considered a menial desk job at the Hokage's office.

* * *

Winter came, and for Sakura that meant hot chocolate with swirly marshmallows and hot-pot. Daddy would also bring out the kotatsu and play peek-a-boo with her. Of course, that also meant that her family would stop badgering her to go play in the park "with the other kids, what was her name again - Inata-chan?"

But Sakura didn't have the heart to tell her mama who was particularly excited about her relationship with _Ino_ -chan ("Our baby-girl is making friends!") that the clan-heiress didn't exactly _talk_ to her but rather in her general direction. And well, she sort of thought Ino-chan was calling her to play with them. Ino-chan was popular and pretty, and all the little girls and boys liked her. And mommy wanted her to make friends with all the pretty girls.

Sakura didn't dare tell her that she was usually making sand-castles alone.

Sakura had a huge "bill-board brow", and bulging eyes. She would subconsciously pat her fringe against her eyes till they tickled her eyelashes. Possibly scaring anyone who wanted to come play with her.

And after Sakura came home from school, she scampered out of her boots and threw her scarf onto the floor. She ran up to the bathroom to wash-up and then they sat at the table for dinner.

Sakura would then spend the rest of her evening, playing with Kuma-tan.

"More tea for you, Kuma-tan?" She lifted the edges of her skirt with a polite curtsy.

And the bear stared back at her through button holes.

She poured piping hot imaginary liquid into his cup and then into her own. She then seated herself on the other end of the table. Primly and properly like a lady, elbows on the table, feet dangling aimlessly.

And beside her, mother was chatting with an aunt on the phone.

"…Oh Maki-chan, did you hear about Tanemura-san lately? I heard she found her husband with another woman in bed…wait, what? Ohoooo, tell me more! Oh wait one second."

She turned to Sakura who was seated politely on the dining table with her bear.

"Sakura-dear?"

Sakura peered at her, over the rim of her toy cup. Her mother's teeth glinted and her eyes shone.

"You remember Akane-chan and Shizuka-chan? They will be coming over this weekend!"

Sakura did remember them.

She remembered fists and dirty ribbons when they were wee-little ones. And all her aunts had married rich, therefore as a result, she had to be very polite to Oba-san because they were rich. They owned diamonds bigger than her hands. That's what Akane-chan told her anyways.

"Hai," she nodded obediently.

"Okay, Maki-chan, we'll be eagerly await your arrival! What? Oh of course, we love your cooking." Mebuki Haruno smiled, the smile didn't reach her eyes.

* * *

Oba-san had to cancel her plans to visit, and there was a lot of extra food. She didn't come over that weekend. However, someone else did.

Sakura was busy playing with Kuma-tan, still in the fresh new dress that she was forced into. Her mother had gone out to the neighbours across the street with food, perhaps also to gossip about how the _other_ neighbours had been fighting all day. Or even how the daughter of the old couple down the street had ran off with the milk-man's son in the middle of the night ("Our window faces their house, you see. The girl ran out crying! Creating quite a ruckus, if I might add."). There were three steady raps on the door and Sakura sat very still, glancing at her father who stumbled into the hall-way clumsily. He scratched his back.

And then he opened the door.

And a couple of minutes passed before Sakura heard the sound of a slice and a weird gurgling sound.

"Daddy?"

Little Sakura-chan walked up to the door where her father was stilled, frozen, unmoving and felt something red splatter on her chin as a blade was pulled out from his torso. She stood very still as the man edged his way in, cracking his neck, left and then right.

He stepped over the fallen corpse.

He eyed her for a few seconds, a pair of _dark_ eyes regarded her frozen form. He was tall, muscular, he was covered in bandages wrapped haphazardly over his face and his arms and over his rippling torso.

His lips then parted, stretching around a wide set of glinting golden teeth, smiling maniacally at her, and then made his way through their house, his sword screeching against their elegant yellow flower wallpaper, ripping it apart. The blood coated his sword thickly, bandages trailing from his arms as he walked with some sort of arrogant swagger.

And Sakura-chan stood extremely still as her father's blood pooled at her feet.

Kuma-tan's paw slipped from her fingers.

On the day of the funeral, they pulled on a set of _dark_ clothes onto her back and several aunts fussed around her borrowed dress, patting down the black satin and regarding her with steely eyes. She looked into the mirror numbly when they twisted her around to look at her appearance. Her mother was stricken behind her, she was seated on the bed as several women around her patted her shoulder and held her hand.

"You have to be strong! You have to be strong for Sakura-chan's sake," one woman cooed.

"Talk to us, Mebuki, tell us something!"

Sakura was made to sit down on the couch as relatives dabbed the dry corners of their eyes with white kerchiefs and wailed theatrically about how Kizashi was such a good man.

"They were a match made in heaven! And oh! Poor Sakura-chan!"

After the funeral processions, Sakura found herself sitting next to her senile grandmother throughout the entire affair, who had brought all thirteen cats with her.

"Has anyone seen Taro-chan?" She crooned, and sent Sakura a withering glare.

"Sayuri was it? Go look for my cat!"

And she pushed Sakura through the sea of people in black, congregating after the funeral, in their packed living-room. She vaguely heard little unconnected bits of conversation.

"-so I heard that the prices ran up this weekend for silk, turns out some kind of skirmish on the border is affecting trading routes. This is so awful for my business…"

"Tch! What on earth are those shinobi-fools doing, and to think we pay extra tax in the village for them to play ninja?"

Sakura squeezed herself between the edge of a table and an aunt's rear-end, as she tried to make it through the packed house. She scrambled up the stairs, softly calling out for the cat. And she then peered down the corridor at her parent's bedroom.

She slowly pushed open the door.

"Taro-tan?" She asked softly. She then came to a halt.

There was a set of dangling legs. It swayed slightly and Sakura felt her shoulders lock up. She slowly looked up, eyes sliding over the long black dress, past the wedding band on her smooth hands and up into her mother's head suspended from a single rope.

 _Meow_.

She didn't look away as Taro-chan smoothly slid between her legs, purring and rubbing his ugly striped, orange back against her calves. Her gaze was still locked with the corpse's dull, dead eyes. The beginnings of a scream caught in the back of her throat.

* * *

The food at the orphanage was mud and her clothes felt itchy. Sakura also had to get used to the roaches skittering along the walls at bed-time. And the old lady who served lunch was deaf and often mean.

"Can I have some pepper with this?" She tried. She attempted a polite smile.

"Eh, what's that? You want some slippers?" She squinted down at the girl.

Sakura heard a wave of snickers around her. Someone threw a pea at her, and she twisted her head around to look at her offender.

They continued on with their lunch, ignoring her. Just like the innocent children that they were.

So Sakura would eat alone in the corner of the cafeteria, on the broken, cracked table where the nails stuck up at odd ends due to a bad carpentry job. She stared at her peas rolling around her tray.

After a month of being absent, Sakura finally returns to class. She tugs at the edge of her black shirt. She pulls at her bangs over sharp viridian eyes. Perhaps it would hide the bloodshot, baggy eyes that are tell-tale of the nights she stays up at the edge of her bed. Because there might be monsters and roaches all around her, making their way into her mouth.

Some people give her a curious stare as she trots up to her regular seat, but most of them ignore her in favor of chattering about what cool ninja-stuff their parents taught them that weekend.

Sakura worked hard for her seat, one which was close to Sasuke-kun.

Iruka-sensei placed her there because he found that she didn't sneak glances as often as the other girls at the boy. In fact, it was so close that she can see the back of his head. If you looked close enough, you could memorize the nape of his neck and you could see the hidden birth-mark, along with giving him chills. You could even see the way his eyelashes brushed against his cheek every time he blinked.

Sakura had dedicated a single page in all of her notebooks for Sasuke-kun's sake.

But little Sakura-chan finds that her interest in the clan-brat has waned. She doesn't seem to find him any more interesting than the smudge of snot on Kiba's sleeve. She just feels so sleepy and tired.

And most of all, she feels like school doesn't really matter to her anymore because she has no friends here anyways.

And when she snaps her head back to her seat when Ino Yamanaka scoots over before she can drop her bag, arms propped on the table. She looks up and arches a pretty eyebrow at her.

"You got a problem, Forehead?"

Sakura turns her head and seats herself quietly beside a snoring Nara. She mimics him for a few seconds before she hears Iruka-sensei holler through the room and she sits up straight.

When lunch time comes, she opens her pack to find her carefully packed sandwich stolen. And with a frown, she feels her stomach rumble uncomfortably.

She then hears a scrape of a chair and turns to look at the pudgy boy who sits down beside her. She doesn't really remember his name. He returns her gaze for a few seconds and then goes back to munching his lunch. She takes note of the super-sized bento, four departments of food disappearing down his throat.

"Shika," he pokes the sleeping Nara.

And the Nara in turn, stirs before turning his head and swats the hand away. The two boys continue their lunch in amiable silence.

Sakura wonders if he'll talk to her and help her with the work she's missed. But she thinks against it as she pulls out a book because she's kind of shy…around most people. Maybe she can review the textbook to see what she's missed.

There's a rumble of her tummy.

And she stops on the chapter about Madara and Hashirama, the first Hokage fighting his best friend to the death- he landed the final blow.

The boy looks at her and continues munching.

She feels his stare uncomfortable so she whips her head back down.

The boy seems to take some pity on her and then reaches at the bottom of his lunch box and holds out a tempura shrimp in front of her nose, somewhat mournfully. Because he has to _walk_ over to his bag again and get out the second lunchbox.

But then again, after the huge grin she gives him, he decides it's _somewhat_ worth the effort.

* * *

And that's how Sakura makes friends with Chouji Akimichi and Shikamaru Nara. Chouji's mother is ecstatic that he's made a new _girlfriend_ and decides to make an extra bento for Sakura-chan.

After all, the only way through a girl's heart is through her stomach.

The three of them are an odd trio, and Sakura's first friends. So she's eager, on the edge of her seat as she chatters to them. And while on-lookers think that the Nara is too lazy to engage in conversations. But Sakura knows better- the Nara is listening.

Most times, they find themselves in companionable silence. Chouji eats, Sakura reads and Shikamaru sleeps.

"Why do you read so much?" Chouji asks her as he opens up a barbecue flavored bag of chips.

Sakura closes her book eager to enlighten him, "Because it's a lot of fun."

"It sounds like a pain," Shikamaru has his head resting on on his arm, staring dazedly outside the window, up at the sky.

She holds the book up in front of her, eagerly showing them the cover (even if Shikamaru isn't really looking). And Chouji furrows his brow at the title.

"T-techiques of g-ge-?"

"Genjutsu, Mind over matter!" Sakura chirps helpfully, "It's about genjutsu theory!" She steals a glance over to the Uchiha, a few desks away from her, engrossed in his meal of tomato omelette.

"Isn't that advanced?" Shikamaru yawns.

"Don't tell anyone," Sakura whispers and leans closer to the two boys, "But I managed to get it off the _high_ -level sections of the library." She pauses to take in their reactions.

And she did. It all started when she decided she wanted to get out of the orphanage, someone had hauled up their breakfast over the floor and the place smelled unbearable. So she unhinged her window and slipped out, walking aimlessly through the streets, her little bag-pack behind her, being shoved left and right with the hustle and bustle of the mighty village of Konohagakure no Sato.

She trotted over to one of the food stands and stared longingly at the cotton-floss candy.

And the uncle at the stand had a rather aggressive dog who yelped at her, snapping his jaws. The old uncle stuck a pinky in his ear and glared at her, shooing her away with his other free hand.

So she wandered away from the stall, squeezing her way, nimbly dodging a pail of dirty soapy water from the third floor of an apartment. She soon found herself in front of the huge Konoha library.

And there were so many books!

Her mother only had magazines and gardening books, Sakura had gotten tired of looking at the pictures and then she had gotten even more tired of reading the same long-winded paragraphs to Kuma-tan when she was younger.

So Sakura ditzed and danced around, fingering the spines of the books in wonder and excitement. Finally, after an hour and a snappy look from the librarian, she pulled out a book and attempted to read, sitting cross-legged.

Unbeknownst to her, a certain Uchiha heir had been watching her with an amused tilt of his lips, head propped on his arms, book opened out in front of him.

And before she knew it, she found herself coming there _every day_ after-school or during the weekends.

But since Sakura was really really _really_ short, she found herself being ignored as she asked for help. She wanted to read the bigger books up on the bigger shelves. There was no stool or ladder to help her climb up.

"Ano, excuse me?" she called out in a small squeaky voice, but the librarian twisted his head in irritation at the shinobi passing by.

"I can see you take the book away Genma! I thought I told you that you were banned from the library till you returned those scrolls, hmmm?"

"Maaa…go easy on me, will ya…" The shinobi rubbed the back of his neck, "I might have lost them…" He added in a small voice sheepishly.

The librarian turned purple and pushed his glasses up against his nose.

"By the Nidaime's left enlarged earlobe, Genma, those were some of our most _important scrolls_! This is the last-."

And Sakura held her story book to her chest very tightly as she glanced over at the books on the cart that were being sorted. They were big-people books! And she was learning genjutsu this week at the academy. She slowly pulled the book away from the cart and glanced once more at the librarian and the shinobi.

She could have sworn that the shinobi had given her a small wink.

Both boys stare at the book in her hands, for a few moments. Sakura looks at both of them expectantly, she then decides that they are both impressed. Shikamaru yawns again and slumps his back. Chouji continues munching and Sakura continues reading.

* * *

Sakura's carrying yet another heavy textbook on her way to class.

This time, some of the adults at the library notice the little pinkette's presence, and the lady with long hair and pretty curls picks out a book for her, noting with some enthusiasm that the girl likes genjutsu.

"Just return the books you take, okay?" She winked a sparkling red orb at the girl and Sakura blushed. She was _so_ pretty. "And _always_ try _anything_ under supervision." She adds with a hint of firmness. The man beside her, hands still in his pocket watches her, thoughtfully.

She nods her head.

At the present, she's on her way to class. That's when someone barrels into her.

She falls to the floor with a thud and rubs her behind.

"Itai-owowow!" She hears a loud scratchy voice.

She looks up at them, and meets the most brilliant cerulean eyes. He turns his face immediately, blood rushing to his cheeks.

"S-sorry, Sakura-chan. Are you o-okay?" He's still not meeting her eyes.

Sakura smiles at the honorable Hokage's son politely before helping him up, "I'm fine. How about you?"

He nods his head quickly, bobbing it up and down, before running past her.

Sakura picks up the book and frowns, dusting it off, making sure it isn't damaged or dog-eared by the encounter.

There are odd rumours flying around behind her back. Rumours that the Hokage's son like _likes_ her. Kiba snickers at her as she passes by and she looks at him in confusion.

He starts howling, _no_ , that's not entirely right- he was singing.

"Sakura and Naruto, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-mmmmphhh!" His mouth is covered by none other than Naruto who pinches his nose for extra measure.

Sakura thinks the entire thing is odd, and takes her seat beside Shikamaru, cracking open her textbook. She doesn't think much of it. She absently wonders what Chouji's mother had gotten for her today. Fried chicken or delicious fried rice? Or better yet, the Akimichi special!

* * *

On Thursday, during Kunoichi class, they were planting flower patches.

The mid-afternoon bell rang for lunch-time.

And Sakura stood up, her hands muddy as she looked down at the plot of flowers that she had so painstakingly planted. The sun shone off the pleasant daisies.

Then she felt a blast of cool water on her face.

And dripping wet, she looked down at the ruined flower patch that she had fallen on. Her eyes watered up as she looked up at Ami and Ino along with the Hyuuga heiress behind them. The Hyuuga heiress is biting her nails and looking with wide eyes from the other two girls to her.

"Ami," Hinata mumbles, "T-that was too much."

"You heard about her, didn't you Hinata?" Ami sneers, curling her upper-lip, "You heard about what Naruto-kun said about her."

Sakura doesn't understand head or tail of the conversation in front of her. The only thought passing through her mind was her _wet_ and _dirty_ clothes. She would have to ask the caretaker at the orphanage to launder this set again. Or she would have to wait until Saturday, if he was in a bad mood, like all the other "snot-nosed brats" in the orphanage.

And as she's walking away from there. She feels a hand on her shoulder.

"U-uhm…"

Hinata Hyuuga is trembling as she hands her a pristine handkerchief, freshly laundered. There is the Hyuuga clan symbol embroidered on it.

Ino and Ami are both staring resentfully at Hinata's back. Ino then pats Ami's shoulder and the two girls turn around, leaving the Hyuuga alone with Sakura.

As a result, Hinata joins their lunch-time crew, courtesy of Sakura's invitation. Hinata twiddles her thumbs, doing nothing at all and listening as Sakura-chan spouts out more complicated jargon about genjutsu and taijutsu. The pinkette goes off on a long winded rant about comparing complicated theories, and ignores the lost looks on their faces. The girl has her arms propped on her book as she gestures widely for her new friend.

And Hinata nods her head timidly, looking over to the other members of the group.

Chouji is munching slowly on pickle-flavored beef jerky, his _after_ -lunch snack. He catches her staring at him and shoves the bag under her nose.

"Want some?" He asks her.

"N-no, _thank you_." she stutters. And Sakura nods at her encouragingly.

"It actually tastes good." She says, biting into her own jerky in the most unladylike fashion and chews at it. She tackles the tough meat with a thoughtful frown, mouth wide open.

Hinata pushes her neatly wrapped lunch box away, slightly sick.

Shikamaru sighs into his arms with annoyance, wondering when his tiny desk got so crowded and _noisy_.

* * *

Eventually when Sakura turns twelve, the orphanage kicks her out on her graduation day. And she strolls through the streets, with nothing but her large, pink suitcase and money jingling in her tiny panda bag. She saved up her allowance for months for the strapped purse. She makes a trip over to the bank and waits patiently in line to talk with the lady to dip into her parent's meagre savings.

And the lady blinks at her.

"How old are you?"

She smirks, puffs out her chest and tucks a hair behind her ear professionally to reveal one glinting viridian eye, "Old enough."

Her first order of business, is to buy her own apartment.

The day goes like that, looking for the cheapest apartment in the vicinity and finally settles on a tiny space with one bathroom, broken tiles and a small kitchen in the corner. There are odd suspicious splotches on the wall.

And the blood-shot, one-eyed landlord takes the money off her hands, he gives her a once over before he leaves.

Sakura thinks it's perfect as she walks inside and twirls around, falling down on the hard, dusty floor with a contented sigh. She groans in relief, because she is so so _tired_ and she feel so responsible.

She also feels slightly lonely.

Because the house is so _empty_ and _quiet_. A spider skitters by her leg. It's _too_ quiet.

That's' when she hears ringing in her ears and twists her head as she hears a crash against the wall opposite her. There's the sound of doors slamming.

She doesn't move for a few seconds, as she hears yelling from the other end.

"And go take your good-for-nothing cat with ya!"

There's an angry cat's meow.

Sakura leans back, rubbing her tummy, wondering if she should go buy groceries.

Then she realizes she's forgotten about the graduation ceremony.

* * *

"Congratulations class! It has been a pleasure teaching all of you!"

Iruka-sensei beams at the classroom, trying not to look too enthusiastic. The class on the other hand, seems to be ignoring him in favor of discussing what team they would be placed in. There's some excited chatter. Ino's snickering madly with Ami-chan and points at Sasuke-kun with a grin. Chouji's seated next to the boy today, offering him some chips when the Uchiha sends him a glare.

"Today-."

"Get on with it!" He hears a yell from the Inuzaka.

"Yeah!" The Hokage's son supports him.

Iruka lets out a sigh, "If you all insist."

He straightens up the sheaf of papers in front of him and clears his throat. Sakura's barely paying attention to him, looking at a catalogue full of furniture on sale. That was until her name comes up.

"Haruno Sakura!"

She looks up distractedly.

"H-hai?!" She asks, panicked. Iruka-sensei raises and eyebrow.

"You are on Team Seven, weren't you listening?" He informs her with a slight amused smile.

Sakura widens her eyes and blushes. There are several snickers directed at her. Iruka sighs internally at the interruption. She had knocked on his apartment at twelve pm the night before, apologizing profusely for missing out on her graduation ceremony.

A red hitae-ate was tied around her long hair, one from the previous years, because they had run out of the fresh batch of navy headbands.

She sits down hurriedly, looks over at Shikamaru and elbows him in the ribs. Iruka looks down back at the list, trying to remember where he had let-off.

"Do you think we'll be together?"

Shikamaru shakes his head ominously and she was about to ask him why.

"Namikaze Naruto!"

The blonde pumps his fists in the air and yells out, "Woot I'm with Sakura-chan!" He looks over his shoulder at her, blushing madly and feeling very self-conscious as several smirks are directed in his direction.

But she's focused on the final name to notice him, hopefully Shikamaru's or Chouji's or Hinata's name will come up...

"Uchiha Sasuke."

There are several groans all over the room. Sakura scratches the back of her head uncomfortably, feeling the glares directed at her back. Ino and Ami look livid.

She sighs and slumps her shoulders. She leans forward, chin on the desk, dejected. Shikamaru places a lazy hand on her head.

"It's not like we won't see each other," he tries awkwardly, and she sends a sad smile in his direction.

She feels Hinata pat her back softly.

* * *

Sakura wonders what entity decided that she should end up being on the same team as Sasuke-kun and the Hokage's son. She doesn't really like Sasuke-kun that much anymore. She wishes that Shikamaru could have taken his place. And maybe Chouji or Hinata could have been in Naruto's place she thinks, thoughtfully. Ino got Shikamaru _and_ Chouji instead. And Hinata got the beautiful genjutsu sensei. She wonders what her sensei would be like.

She feels a certain blonde shuffle beside her.

"Ano, Sakura-chan?" He asks her eagerly, his head-band neatly tied around his head, a feat capable by someone other than himself. She fingers the knot behind her head, unconsciously- wondering if it will fall off. "Would you like to go on a date?"

He pauses, waiting for her reaction.

Sakura shakes her head grimly, "Sorry Naruto, I have to go to do some work after this."

Maybe she would buy that futon after all, she had scrubbed the floors clean with water from the _leaky_ bathroom tap, using the collected sampled shampoo packets. Then she would probably _have_ to clean out the bathroom. She sniffed herself lightly, she hadn't had a bath in a day or so.

"But school is over," he frowns at her.

"That doesn't mean you stop studying," she reprimands him and he looks down at the ground with crossed arms, deep in thought. And beside her, Uchiha Sasuke sends her a look.

The three of them are unbelievably awkward.

Team Seven has a different kind of dynamic. Naruto continues chattering at her, occasionally altering his voice to sound scratchier and stuttering over big words. She nods her head politely, indulging him, smiling. She absentmindedly wonders if she should meet her new neighbours. Sasuke still hasn't spoken a word. She thought she caught him sending her curious looks when she corrects Naruto, helping him over the big words, kindly.

The hour passes. And then another.

She kicks off her shoes and sits atop her desk, the desk that has been hers for the past two years and gets lost in all the happy times with her friends. Their Jounin sensei is awfully late. After three painful hours, even Naruto gets tired of chattering. Someone stumbles through the entrance. The chalk-duster perched between the door and the frame falls on his head. But he barely notices it (courtesy of none other than Konoha's number one hyperactive, unpredictable ninja, the position previously owned by his mother).

"AHHH! Sorry I'm late!" He yelps. Sakura is still staring at the bits of grass on his hair and the chalk duster outline. She then flinches because, he's so _loud_.

"You see, I sort of got lost on the road of life." He smiles at them.

And all three genin blink. Before Naruto lets out a yelp of protest. Uchiha Sasuke scoffs beside her.

Sakura is still quiet. She looks up into the eyes of a cheery-eyed man with a puff of black hair. He looks awfully like Sasuke-kun. She tries to make a connection, glancing between the two of them.

"Hey guys! I'm your new Jounin-sensei, Obito Uchiha!" He grins at them in turn, his eyes settle on Sakura.

"Gah! Why did Dad have to make _you_ our sensei?" Naruto stuffs his hands into his pockets and interrupts him, "Why couldn't it have been Rin-oneesan or Kakashi-niisan, they are both so much _cooler_ than you."

Obito smacks his head, "What was that, pipsqueak?!"

And for the first time since they were waiting, Sakura hears Sasuke speak. Actually speak. He _didn't_ even look at her when they first met.

"Why are you _our_ Jounin-sensei, Obito?" He asks stiffly.

And Sakura watches as her new sensei casually barrels into Sasuke and wrings him into a hug, "Sasuke-pyon! They made you my student too!"

Sakura thought she saw a twitch of a vein on the Sasuke's head as he scowls dramatically, squirming in his grasp.

He looks at her and smiles, "Hi there! You see, these two morons already know me, since I was on his father's genin team-," he gestures towards Naruto, "And I'm related to Sasuke-pyon here, third cousin."

He then narrows his eyes at her for a few seconds and she takes a few steps backwards uneasily.

"Why is your hair pink?"

Sakura blinks. Her first impression is that…she might have ended up with an idiot for a sensei.

* * *

Her preconceived notions of her sensei, die down rather quickly when they have to fight him. He turns out better than she expected. And Naruto ends being tied up to the pole at the end of what he calls, the 'bell-test'.

Obito shakes his head regretfully, "I'm really disappointed in all of you."

His eyes train on her for a moment and she looks down at her toes.

"I don't think you have all learned your lesson properly."

And with that he throws lunch-boxes at her and Sasuke, "Eat up." His eyes then crinkle happily as they settle upon Naruto.

"And don't give _any_ to Naruto or you'll all fail!" He cheerfully nods before snickering wildly to himself. And just as he came, he wildly disappears as the indignant blonde in question yelps out a stream of curses (Naruto's mother wouldn't be so happy about his language, Sakura thinks).

And Sakura brings the octopus shaped sausage to her mouth before stopping. She looks over from Sasuke who cracks open the seal of the bento to Naruto who's looking longingly at the two of them. His stomach rumbles. She thinks of Chouji and holds the chopsticks up to Naruto's mouth.

Naruto and Sasuke both look at her questioningly, and she looks down at the single pebble in front of her.

"I just thought, we could help him out," she says, blushing madly.

They both continue to give her a questioning stare. She lets out an exasperated sigh and looks around nervously, "Look, can you eat it quickly? You'll need energy, you'll hold us back if Obito-sensei comes back for round two."

And Naruto gulps looking down at the Octopus Sausage before blushing _hard_ and chomping onto it. Sasuke sighs and picks up his rolled egg and brings it to Naruto's mouth with a scowl. Naruto sends an equally angry scowl in his direction.

"Shut up, dobe. You know you'll drag us down."

"What was tha-mmph!" The rolled egg was promptly stuffed into his mouth.

And before Naruto can finish chewing with an insult, there's a loud burst of smoke and a cloud of dust, sparkling dust. All three genin cough as Obito-sensei appears. His face looks stormy.

"You guys-!" Sasuke winces, Sakura whimpers and Naruto gulps again, Obito's demeanor changes completely, "Pass!"

Sakura swore she saw rainbows behind Obito's head.

The first time she ever saw the Hokage, she thought he was pretty good-looking for Naruto's dad. Of course, she never admitted it, she stared down at her new, ninja shoes, ones which she had gotten for 25% off (because of her new genin status).

But she _really_ didn't matter, as the attention of the room was on Naruto, who was throwing a tantrum, asking for a better mission than "cleaning out bird-poop and walking stupid mutts- I want to go and kick ass, y'know what I'm sayin'?"

The Yondaime Hokage rubbed his forehead with a sigh.

"Naruto, your mother will have my head for this."

"Wait till I tell her about how you ate the last chocolate pudding!"

"You will say no such thing!"

Sakura tuned them out, her eyes fell on Tora-chan who was gazing over Naruto's shoulder at her.

Sakura also got shivers around cats. But she didn't want to say it out loud to the Hokage when he assigned them that mission, she let her bangs fall in her eyes. She felt her skin crawl until Naruto finally handed the feline over to the Fire daimyo's wife. It scratched and clawed against the ecstatic woman's cheeks and then settled its yellow eyes on her.

She looked away immediately, feeling bile rise up at the back of her throat.

Sasuke sent her a questioning stare.

* * *

The mission that they did get, after a lot of persuasion, was to escort an old drunk to the Wave country.

It was a surprisingly simple mission.

That was until they were ambushed on the road by a bunch of bandits.

Both boys launched themselves onto the bandits. Sasuke slightly more skillful in comparison to Naruto. But both of them exposed their upbringing in a ninja-household, trained by their families. No more, no less.

And Obito-sensei from his branch, peers down at the genin fighting while his clone easily incapacitates his share of bandits. He might have been a late-bloomer himself but Obito was no joke in his later years. One of the few members in the clan to get the _Mangekyo Sharingan_ , the other was his infuriating runt of a cousin, Shisui. He takes note of Naruto and Sasuke with an approving nod.

His eyes fall onto the pinkette.

Sakura on the other hand, smelled blood. The fresh coppery tang from fresh wounds. There was the screech of metal.

And suddenly she was five years old, Kuma-chan was hanging off her limp, slacked arm. The freshly laundered fabric of the teddy bear swaying gently over the puddle of blood under her feet.

And slowly she brings her hands together, there are bits of flesh flying around her.

Obito raised an eyebrow as he watched the bandit crew of four, _strong_ men shake with fear as she worked her fingers through a set of hand-signs. And the next thing he knows, a _wicked_ smile stretches itself across her lips. They scream out, and their partners look to them in confusion, all four men, incapacitated on the ground, frothing at the mouth.

And being an Uchiha, he realized at first glance.

She was using genjutsu. A very high level technique- one which will drain her out eventually, used only to torture men, to bring out their worst of fears. He swoops down, walking towards her, one of them has rolled his eyes backwards, falling slack on the ground.

The next one is beating the ground in agony, clutching at his throat. He asphyxiates himself.

The third one takes out his kunai, and blood is spilling everywhere as he drives it into his throat.

The bandits look around uneasily, before taking a few steps backwards and bolting out into the trees. Their charge is watching the entire thing with widened eyes from where he stands, his eyes falling on the girl who now turns to the fourth and final member of the bandits.

Obito snaps her unconscious, sending a blow to her neck. And her body slumps against him.

Then the report he read about her came to mind, the one about her parents.

He hadn't particularly paid attention to her, because he had to deal with Naruto and Sasuke who were always at each other's throats. And for the first time, he realizes the true responsibility of being a Jounin-sensei. He looks at the man as the genjutsu breaks. He's cowering and muttering under his breath.

"I will not tell lies!" He repeats the same sentence over and over again more forcefully.

Obito looks down at her face resting against his chest, tears streaming down the corners of her eyes. He brushes them away softly.

The murderer who killed Kizashi Haruno, described with _gold_ teeth. He narrows his eyes in thought.

The man in front of them takes a kunai and stabs himself through his chest.

* * *

He snaps his gold teeth at her.

She huddles into the blankets, clenching her eyes, whimpering slightly. There are stares sent in her direction. Naruto's looking over at her, worried. Sasuke's in discomfort, fidgeting. But neither has said anything since the 'incident'.

Obito-sensei took her to the stream to wash off the blood off her.

And she was staring over his shoulder as he slowly wringed out a rag, wiping her arms and her face.

"When we get home," he tells her, but she's barely listening, there's still the thumping of blood rush in her ears, "I'll have to sign you up for therapy sessions. I know the best therapist in all of Konoha, she was my former team-mate. But Sakura-chan, you can tell me about anything you want, okay?"

She's doesn't respond, because the man with bandages is right behind him, blood dripping off the edge of his sword. She stares into his cool indifferent eyes.

So here she was, seated on cool leather, as Rin Nohara scratches on her clip-board. She looks down at the girl with warm violet eyes.

"Let's start by talking about how you feel, you can go as slow as you want, Sakura-chan." She begins with an equally warm smile.

* * *

"So this girl, Haruno Sakura," Kakashi begins and Obito rubs off some sweat off his face before pausing his actions, "She appears to be quite talented."

They both watch her dodge Sasuke's punch and twists her body around performing a complex kata and deftly knocking the boy a few steps back. Sasuke growls and returns the favour with equal fervour, and he punches her cheek, throwing her off guard.

Naruto is sparring with Kakashi's clone, comically yelling at him to "take off that damn mask!"

"She also has appeared to have stolen scrolls from the A-rank section." He adds with some amusement in his tone, "I'm sort of impressed."

Obito snickers, "She's awfully talented, yeah." He slings the towel around his neck and sighs, "A little too talented if you ask me." He thinks darkly of what the village elders would do with her, if they find out about her.

She was fresh meat for the slaughter, orphan, talented, and civilian. No clan-affiliation to top it off.

"A few improvements here and there, and she could possibly be ANBU material," Kakashi suggests innocently.

Obito cricks his neck as he swivels around to face him.

"She's not ready for what ANBU has to offer, _yet_." He scowls at Kakashi who shrugs. He digs his hands into his pocket and sighs.

"I was in ANBU when I was fourteen, captain when I was barely sixteen. The Uchiha heir became captain when he was thirteen. Being young and in ANBU is nothing unusual," he informs Obito in a clipped tone.

Obito doesn't reply.

"Besides," Kakashi sighs as he walks off, leaving Obito staring at his back, "You never truly tame your demons. You put them on a leash."

 _Drip drip drip drip._

Sakura stares at her long hair in the mirror which she had painstakingly scrubbed clean the day earlier. It's falling below her shoulders, way below her shoulders. Her split-ends are starting to show.

She pulls up the sharpened kunai and bunches her hair up in a fist.

Strands of cotton candy _pink_ hair fall to the tiles, and into sink as she looks at her appearance, frowning at her long bangs that are draped against her eyes.

She sighs.

"I really don't like this look." She mumbles, feeling the breeze tickle the back of her neck.

She sets the kunai down and loosens out her hair some more, pulling out some of the raw strands. She then decides to actually borrow a scissor from the next door neighbours.

 _Knock knock._

The door cracks open and someone stares at her through the door, parted only by a single door latch.

"Whaddya want kid?"

She smiles politely, "Can I borrow a pair of scissors?"

The door shuts in on her, blowing past her bangs.

She sighs. Well, it was still worth the try. Her eyes flit over to the other door on the other unoccupied flat at the end of the corridor.

A silver-haired boy with glasses answers the door.

"Hello," she asks him politely, "Can I borrow a pair of scissors?"

His eyes run over her disaster hair-cut. He smiles at her apologetically and she heaves a sigh of relief. At least her new neighbour is someone nice!

"I'm so sorry," He tells her politely, "I just moved in. It's probably stuck down in some of the boxes."

"That's fine." She answers, "It was worth the try."

He smiles back at her, pushing up his glasses to the bridge of his nose as it slips off, "My name is Kabuto. What's yours?" The light is glinting on the glass.

"Sakura." She grins back, not really sure why something inside her feels uncertain about this boy, "Haruno Sakura."

* * *

Rin spends the next session scolding her for being so stupid with her hair care while she "purges the evil" with her combs and ties and a snappy pair of scissors. She deftly working through the pink, tangled mane. They are inside her office bath-room and she's evening out the strands of her hair and slowly styling it.

"I nearly had a heart-attack when you walked through that door. I thought someone had roughed you up."

Sakura grins at her reflection sheepishly, "Sorry, Rin-san. I was just trying to save shampoo and _time_. And it gives me more time to sleep."

Rin doesn't say anything as she styles her bangs, parting them on either side of her face instead of falling into her viridian eyes. There is a dull frown on her face however. Sakura cannot tell from what.

"This is the latest fashion with young girls," she says thoughtfully peering at the reflection and then smiles warmly.

"Sakura-chan, did you know that you are really pretty?"

Sakura's face reddens considerably.

"N-no I'm not!"

"Course you are," she rests her chin atop her new bob-cut, "I like this hair-style." She runs her fingers through her side-bangs, letting the hair stream through her fingers slightly, "Give you a few years and you'll be bringing all the boys to the yard."

Rin winks at her mischievously.

Sakura tilts her head into a thoughtful expression. She doesn't really get the quip.

"But Rin-san?" She frowns, "I don't _have_ a yard. I live in an apartment."

* * *

 **Yes, you can skip over this author's note.**

 _A/N: Obito you loser._

 _I swear he's the type who'll probably pull dad-jokes out of his ass. Well after Hashirama or Shisui, and Naruto. I think Kizashi beats them all: "Mom's right, Sakura. Stop arguing and…don't be so salty!" Literally holds out a salt-shaker. And then goes back to reading his newspaper with a straight face._

 _Sakura gets up and walks away._

 _Oh Sasuke-kun, you have the best in-laws in the world._

 _What was I talking about again?_

 _Right! So if you managed to get to the end, there's probably more in the future! Typing this out was so much fun, I was snickering madly along the way, like oh hey- maybe I should do a Yondaime appreciation day. At one point, I wanted to make Kushina the Hokage- and I was like, why not make that another story? It'd be fun to explore Yondaime Hokage and Naruto interaction- especially some of the darker power-play I had planned for this chapter._

 _Sakura is such an awkward adorable dork. awwn._

 _So this started out as a sort of angsty draft, and in the end it sort of ended up boring me and my typing slowed down. So I cracked my fingers and rewrote Sakura's personality. This was in the end, a mesh of several separate ideas._

 _So please review, let me know if there are any grammatical errors, self-proofread because I had no internet while typing it._

 _But also note, I wrote this as a sort of stress-reliever, because school's started and there goes pyro's head. If you have any crazy fantasies I might just steal them and add them here, winky face._


	2. Chapter 2

**I own nothing.**

Rin writes a few more notes on her clip-board before peering over at her, lost in thought. The girl blinked back at her.

"I think that's it for our session today." She looks at the watch, "I think we had a very productive session, don't you think?"

Sakura smiles at her, not really understanding whether talking about her neighbours, Obito-sensei's cooking or her woes on her new team, could really be called productive. She wasn't even certain on why Obito-sensei was so _insistent_ on her taking these sessions.

But Sakura was never a disobedient child.

"Oh wait one second!" Rin pauses, rummaging through her drawer and pulls out single pink notebook, "You like pink, don't you?"

Sure, she liked pink.

Sakura stares at the leather-bound pink book before asking, "Rin-san, what am I supposed to do with this?"

"Do you like writing?" Rin asks her.

Sakura really just likes reading. Writing?

She did write a story about her favourite heroine, Princess Emi. But one of the kids managed to find it. She found her story soiled on the ground the next day and several jeering renditions of the following lines:

"Oh handsome dear prince-lord! Don't let my evil sister split us apart!"

One of them fluttered his eyelashes and mock-fainting into another child's arms, while several other children laughed.

And Sakura resolved never to write again lest she be subject to more humiliation.

Nevertheless, she still stuck to writing odd bits of poetry on tissue paper and then flushing them down the toilet. Little notes about her moods and feelings, like how she really wanted to skip practice that day or how she was really glad to have friends.

 _Roses are red. Violets are blue. She loved meat. And meat loved her too._

It was her way of reminding herself to be thankful.

"Somewhat…" she said slowly.

"Well this is a journal…"

* * *

The girl turned down the corridor, the light shone over her face highlighting the pale, frightened features and the mismatched make-up.

She stumbled over her heels. A shadow crept behind the girl. She whipped her hair around and screamed. She had hands on either side of her sallow, blush-painted cheeks.

Sakura screamed and pulled the blanket over her head.

"AHAHAHAHAHAA! This is the best!"

Anko Mitarashi grinned happily and chomped on her pop-corn. Sakura peeked over her blankets as the girl got hacked to pieces.

"Awhh kitten, this is the best part!" Anko let out a sigh of happiness. She threw her head back in laughter once again as the shadowed figure let out warped sentence that sounded oddly like "I've been watching you while you sleep".

"Is it over yet?" Sakura groaned into her blankets, "I thought you said we were going to watch something _romantic_ today! Like Princess Emi and her wonderful magical adventures, not - " She paused and grimaced into the fabric of the blanket, "- _Ninja Psychos II_."

Anko whammed a pillow into her face as Sakura sent her a withering glare.

"Shaddap already, will ya? Fair is fair. I won rock-paper-scissors."

There was another theatrically bone-chilling scream, and the older kunoichi burst into more laughter, beating the seat of her couch with one fist.

When Sakura first met Anko, she was threatened to be eaten alive by her rather _large_ pet snake. A large snake, which she used as a scarf.

It twirled around Sakura's neck, holding her in a chokehold for "making too damn noise outside door" and "can't a woman get some sleep around here?"

Anko also incidentally happened to be her grumpy next door neighbour- who was eternally broke and preferred some of the cheaper districts around the village. That's what she told Sakura anyways. And she often got drunk, or dumped. And sometimes, both.

And Sakura was victim to her _long_ rants.

"Uhm, I need to get going Anko-san." She nervously looked down at her strawberry watch.

"D'you think it's the effect I 'ave?" Anko asked, ignoring her, pointing to her face, red nose and a glare that would have made several grown men _shiver_ in their boots.

Sakura smiled weakly and tried to avoid the snake's tongue, tickling the nip of her ear.

After a month of remembering her name as "bad-haircut" to "pinky" to "kitten"- after she accidentally exposed her distaste for horror movies, the two kunoichi had sort of developed a bit of an endearing yet haphazard relationship of sorts.

They would sit in front of Anko's new TV set and watch horror movies created for civilians and _by_ civilians as a means of recreation (most shinobi found the entertainment rather dull). It wasn't quality entertainment.

But Sakura liked to compare it to Chouji's potato chips. You knew it wasn't any good for you, yet you still ate it. It was entertaining at least.

And sometimes Anko would come over, crying about how she was "so broke" as she cleaned out Sakura's carefully stocked fridge.

"Ya know, this is so good," She crunched on the cereal, bits falling over the cleaned floor. Sakura watched her blandly.

"There's milk in the fridge." The pinkette offered and then looked back down at the A-rank scrolls "confiscated" from wherever the hell Anko worked - after some _convincing_.

She had long since given up on asking Anko about where she worked, but she _did_ ask her.

"Do you really want to know?" There was a grin, a wide malicious grin exposing a set of _white_ teeth. All the better to eat you with, my dear. Anko waggled an eyebrow, an unnerving glint in her eye as if daring her to say 'Yes Anko-sama! I really do want to know! Do tell of your _mysterious_ yet glamorous kunoichi life.'

Sakura really didn't want to know.

Anko also complained loudly during Princess Emi television series which Sakura adored.

The pinkette sniffed loudly as Emi and the noble Prince-lord got caught by the palace guards, who were dressed in red tartan robes and high feather hats.

"What a whole lotta booollsheet." She drawled and waggled a pinky in her ear, cleaning it out. She yawned widely and propped her long, powerful legs over her coffee table, "What morons decide to share spit right smack inna middle of their parent's house?"

"Anko," Sakura narrowed her eyes and huffed, "They are in love! You do crazy things in love! And it was the most passionate balcony _kiss_ ever!" Her eyes sparkled.

Anko choked over her pop-corn, "D-don't say k-ki-."

Sakura raised an eyebrow at the older woman.

" _Kiss_." She deadpanned, her ever-present, ever-helpful, know-it-all nature slipping into place.

"Shaddap!" Anko screeched, looking slightly flushed. And Sakura shook her head gravely and felt several years older.

The snake-loving woman growled, "Lovey dovey smovey, I bet he's gonna die in the end and the princess is going to be alone and weepy." She made a face.

"Tell you what."

"What?"

"Let's play a game of rock-paper-scissors."

And so, poor Sakura was stuck watching _Ninja Psychos II_ with Anko for the _second_ time with a second blanket to block out the sounds of screaming. She watched helplessly as another man turned around the corner, straight past the DO NOT CROSS tape.

The television set blared with yet another spine-chilling scream.

She really had horrid luck.

And Sakura clenched her wet eyes while Anko cackled madly, throwing a box of tissues in the younger girl's face so she didn't get her "damn snot all over the leather".

Perhaps the only occupant in the room who was particularly inconvenienced by the noise. He raised his head and gave the two females a snake equivalent of a despairing glance.

He then slithered off the couch and into the other rooms in the house.

* * *

Sakura also barely saw her other neighbour, Kabuto. And that's all she was given. His first name. Although he did invite her over for lunch once.

She was slurping up the noodles in the most undignified fashion. Kabuto's cooking was delicious, she thought. Anko had resolved to stay as far away from the "helmet-boy as possible."

But Sakura liked being polite.

Kaa-san had always taught her to be pleasant with anyone she met and always be thankful for free food. Even if it was horrible – she hated her aunt's cooking, but she never said it.

"Wow!" She says through a mouthful, nearly spraying some food in his direction, not noticing the disgust on his face, "You are a really good cook!"

It sort of also tastes familiar, but she can't place it.

She attempts a smile, mouth still full.

"Thank you."

He nods at her uncomfortably. And then shuffles lightly over to the right, to block out the expired cups of ramen into the bin.

Sakura, lets out slight contented burp- much like Choji taught her to do so, after every meal. In the Akimichi household, it was a gesture of appreciation, Kabuto grimaces inwardly. He leans forward and hands her a tissue so that she can wipe her mouth.

And she brings the tissue to her face, hardly _noticing_ as he lightly knocks the empty bowl over, sending it to the floor with a crash.

The shards split against her exposed leg.

She widens her eyes at the sight of blood dripping, in small streams.

"Oh my," Kabuto chuckles and she raises her eyes to him, uneasy because of the _close_ proximity of his fingers.

He's leaning over her, his hand slowly making his way up to her knees, "Let me fix that for you."

She widens her eyes and draws her leg back against her chest where her heart is beating madly against her rib-cage, toes digging into couch surface, "Oh n-no t-t-that's f-fine! I mean…"

She feels very unsettled, agitated, and he's _too_ close. Part of her mind is telling her to pull out the spare kunai tucked underneath her bandages covering her chest and slash his throat, the other part is slightly whimpering.

He smiles at her, adjusting his glasses and he brings a chakra coated hand to her legs.

"Allow me." He grins at her, flashing her a clinical smile, it didn't reach his eyes. And she watches numbly as he slowly brings up the other hand to her cheek, trailing up to her temple, slowly soothing her nerves and she feels sort of woozy but also sort of…calmed.

His blue walls were going hazy and the couch underneath her feet feels cottony - _no,_ more like soft clouds. He brings a soothing finger over her calves, over the shards and the bloody leg, glowing a hazy green.

It feels sort of nice and cool, like an icy glass of cool lemonade on a hot summer's day- against her cheek, or the feel of new coins against her face. Just smooth, cool and pleasant.

"What is it?" She asks curiously.

He pushes up his glasses, "Medical ninjutsu." He informs her, his tone sounds faraway, yet she blushes because it sounds so _nice_.

She leans back, she's read something like this somewhere, too sleepy to think about where.

Her mind drifts over to other nice things, like Hinata-chan, Chouji and Shikamaru. Her friends all of them together eating lunch at Chouji's mother's shop. But they all had been _so_ busy lately.

She chuckles at the sensation.

She watches as the light cut mends itself together under his prowess and thinks to herself, it would also be _really_ nice to know it.

So she voices her thoughts.

"Would you teach me?" She asks him. He regards her for a few minutes before nodding his head slowly.

"Perhaps when I'm free, I'll let you know." He smiles at her carefully, "Now, why don't you tell me more about yourself?"

Sakura shifts in the couch comfortably.

Her mind eases its way into a trail of thought, journal-schmournal, and all those therapy sessions under balmy lights in Rin's comfortable cool office, come to mind.

Rin's voice floats to her, "It's important to take little steps slowly, one by one to open up, Sakura-chan. We can take this as slowly as you want."

The light above her feels out-of-focus, very holy, very bright- like the sun. She thinks she sees blue skies and Princess Emi's magical purple carriage float towards her.

Sakura was starting to feel _great_ about this therapy thing.

Princess Emi smiles at her, winking a heavily lashed, dark blue eyelid with sparkles and holds out a hand towards her. Her pretty eyes are shining with promises, of pretty things. Of long hours waiting in the moonlight for her lover, of brushing her pretty hair over and over again, of wearing _beautiful_ outfits and of playing in lush, sunlit gardens with other pretty girls.

Of being the princess of the kingdom.

"What would you like to know?" She's still focused on the way he's holding her leg out, the way the skin tingles as it comes together, feeling so lazy, she doesn't even think about the blood.

She closes her dazed eyes, grinning.

* * *

For Sakura, her team-mates are strange.

They baffle her, leave her exasperated and also make her laugh. She's still getting used to the _idea_ of working with them.

She notes that a lot of girls would _kill_ to be in her position. After all, they were the Hokage's son and the son of the influential yet powerful Uchiha clan. But for Sakura, the experience seemed surreal, she wasn't dumb. She knew that a lot of those parents wanted to marry _into_ the Uchiha family. No matter what Naruto did in the future, he would still be influential because he was the Hokage's son.

Teams were sort of a political matter in that sense.

So why not Ami? Or Ino? Or even someone else? Sakura wondered, as she watched the two boys fight, one day at practice.

Why her?

A simple civilian orphan with a penchant for thieving ranked training scrolls with average looks, an absolute paper-ninja with no idea what to do with that big brain of hers. The list went on and on and _on_ as she stared at her outstretched palms and the paper-cuts that were covered with pink, bunny Band-Aids.

She didn't even own a set of clean clothes today.

If it wasn't their lineage. It was probably their personalities that took some time getting used to.

Naruto is _loud_ and boisterous. He's just like Obito-sensei, and the two often get into fights. He also wears his heart on his sleeve, that is, yells out in his loud scratchy voice, that he would _take out_ his father and become Hokage. But the boy always seems to be encouraging her, listening to the bookish pinkette ramble on about anything with nothing but sincerity.

"Ano…Sakura-chan what does diplomacy mean?" Naruto asked her after one particularly long mission briefing- for which he didn't really care about.

Sakura pushed a lock behind her ear eagerly, as she launched into an explanation of the etymology, the linguistic structure and the history behind the word. Obito-sensei and Sasuke walk on ahead (lest they be dragged into _conversation_ ), leaving the confused boy alone with her.

He also asks her out, a _lot_.

"Sakura-chan? Would you like to go out on a date with me?" He gives her the best impression of charming smile befitting a puppy chasing its own tail.

She wipes down her face with the towel before pausing to reply. The girl really doesn't like the dejected look on his face, so she almost says okay - before she's interrupted.

"Kitten!" There's another, rather _loud_ exclamation.

Sakura twitches a lower lid as her team pauses mid-workout. Naruto gets pushed aside by a rather _large_ force.

"I missed you!" Anko wrapped her arms around Sakura, and rubbed her sweaty cheek against her face, wailing about how she had just gotten back from a week long mission and she had to eat worms because there was no food and what not. The pinkette heaves her shoulders with a sigh

"Anko, I'm at my _team_ practice."

The lady hums and catches sight of Obito-sensei who's looking between the duo for some sort of introduction or explanation- really _anything_.

"Eh? What's dead-last doing here?" Anko scratches her deep violet hair, giving Obito a curious look, "W-wait! They made dead-last your teacher? OH MAN! That's rich!" She slapped her knee and let out an ear-splitting laugh.

"Ne ne?" She giggles into Sakura's ear, "Does he still pee his pants when someone tickles him?"

Obito turns a magnificent shade of blue then purple.

"Oi Mitarashi! Get your snake-fingers off my student!"

Sakura sighed into her towel as Anko still chortling, flits her eyes over to a rather unnerved Sasuke and Naruto watching her snake companion warily. She looked as if she found a _million_ bucks (or young cute boys).

"Oho! What do we have here?"

Sasuke turned white. Naruto gulped.

* * *

And as a result, practice was halted for the day. Anko said she was looking for Rin, under a rock, when she saw Sakura- "Oh Rin-chan! Where could you be? And then I was like- oh look, what do we have here? So this is kitten's team!"

While Obito looked rather agitated as he yelled at her that Rin's office _wasn't_ anywhere near the training grounds and to "stay away from Sakura-chan, dammit!"

Sakura packed her things and left the training grounds, leaving Anko with the remainder of her team. Naruto and Sasuke were the last ones to spar anyways- before Anko's interruption. She idly wonders what to make for dinner.

Sasuke falls into step with her.

She looks at him questioningly, and his pale cheeks are lightly pinked.

"Where are you going?"

She blinks once, then twice and adjusts the strap of her knap-sack.

As the clan-head's son, Sasuke was _nothing_ but serious.

Supposedly with a "stick up his ass" as Naruto put it. She had an inkling of a feeling that she was being looked down upon at first. But that quickly changed after their first mission. While often silent, he's really never mean to Sakura. At least she hasn't been on the receiving ends of one of his scowls - _yet_.

Sakura had mixed feelings towards the boy.

On one hand, he seems to be a _sort of_ pleasant, rather helpful and _somewhat_ kind. Like the time he helped her out with her positioning. On the other hand, connecting with him is a lot like talking to stone wall, and there were twelve different types of 'hn' and 'hnn' was a variation of the former to mean displeasure or pleasure- she couldn't really tell.

But most of all, it felt like a conversation with yourself.

She had to admit, it was _hard_ to talk to the Uchiha. However, no one really explained to her the dynamics of _awkward_ and emotionally constipated pre-teen Uchihas, back then.

He was still waiting for her to respond.

"Home," she replies, "Do you want something?"

And the boy cracks slowly into a slight blush, rubbing the back of his head.

And in a very small voice he says, "…would like to invite you for dinner."

She just hears breeze and some yelling, the loud snorting bunch of drunk shinobi pass by her, talking loudly about the beauty of youth. She edges in closer, cocking an ear in Sasuke's direction, frowning distinctly in their direction for being so noisy.

"I said," He says a little louder, it's a rare sight, to actually see Uchiha Sasuke looking flustered, "Kaa-san would like to invite you and Naruto's family over for dinner. She wants to get to know the team."

Sakura's eyes widen at the sound of dinner. She brings her face closer to his, as if she hasn't heard him right.

"F-free dinner?" She asks slowly.

And he nods at her, she barely notices him swallow nervously because of the _close_ proximity.

"I'll be there! What time, place?"

"This Saturday, 5, my house."

She grins at him, "Noted." She waves her hand in his direction, "See ya and thanks!"

She's chortling to herself, filled with fantasies about _free_ dinner. She barely notices him, hands still stuffed into his pockets, watching her leave.

* * *

At exactly five pm sharp, Sakura patted down her hair and twirled around in her nicest outfit for the occasion. It consisted of simple yet formal baby pink yukata for the dinner. She liked being punctual- it was something her mother had also sort of ingrained in her. Always on-time for dinner, always on-time for school- always on-point, never too late.

She tugged at the too-tight Obi and rang the bell again.

She also felt butterflies flutter around in her belly, because it was the first time that _anyone_ had invited her to dinner. And the Uchiha compound was _big_. Really big, and there were a _lot_ of people. She got several glances in her general direction as she passed by, and some raised brows when she finally reached the clan-head's house, standing outside, and mouth hanging open.

Everything was so _big_.

She had to ask for directions.

"Uhm…I have a-," she paused as the old uncle fanned himself, looking at her as if he can't hear her, "Where's the clan-head's house?" She made wide gestures to emphasize _big._

She also suspected it was because the Uchiha family were curious about this no-name civilian girl on a very politically affluent team. But Sakura didn't really care.

A free dinner is a free dinner.

It wasn't often that she also got to dress-up. She snickered to herself, and ran a hand through her clasped up hair for extra measure, she felt so _pretty_. Rin decided to do her make-up.

"Yep!" The older kunoichi clasped her hands together, "Sakura-chan! I'll do my best!"

Anko, sitting on the couch behind Rin really wanted to crash the dinner party.

"I'll let you know how great it is." Sakura offered pleasantly, stretching her pink-glossed lips into a smile.

"Why you!"

And Rin, with pins in her mouth rolled her eyes at the two kunoichi.

Sasuke opened the door. For a one second, Sakura, still hands all over her hair froze- they stared at each other.

"Er… Hi?" Sakura settled, smiling nervously.

Sakura was then pulled inside awkwardly. She placed her slippers down with extra care- because the Uchiha house-hold was so _clean_ and neat and there were ornate artefacts everywhere. He was saying something, but she really didn't understand him.

"Sorry?" She turned to Sasuke who sighed, flustered. He pointed towards the passage way on the right.

"There's the dining room, Naruto's family will be coming soon and so will Obito." He informed her. He was dressed up too – and he looked pretty nice. She tried not to think about all the fan-girl who would kill to be in this position. Or kill her.

So she went down the path he pointed her then paused.

Sakura scratched her head…his house was just _so_ big. And it seemed like Sasuke didn't remember tell her _which_ door.

So she opened the first door. Which turned out to be a staircase leading down.

Sakura blinked and felt the cool draft brush by her cheeks. Curiosity overwhelmed her.

Before she knew it, she was walking downstairs and into a _huge_ library.

Her breath caught in her throat and made a beeline for the shelves, fingering the edges of the spines as she did so. She lightly shivered with excitement and anticipation.

And it was well over half-an-hour, before she realized that she was, in fact in the wrong room.

* * *

A single large table. Possibly the largest table that she's ever seen. Made of rich red wood, full of unfilled porcelain dishes. Soft _white_ porcelain, rimmed with gold. And the table-spread is _white_ , so pristine that she's almost scared to dirty it.

Sakura's mouth drops.

She brought a shaky hand towards it, she's suddenly feels quite conscious of her appearance in this room. There are mirrors all around her reflecting her image, her scraggly, suddenly inferior image. She wonders instinctively why anyone decided that a dining room should have mirrors, cut and patterns, exquisite patterns cut into them. A single elegant chandelier dangled above her.

The cushions under her feet were rather soft, made of satin, embroidered, _hand_ embroidered. She tugged unconsciously at the obi.

And suddenly a fit of giggles overwhelm her.

Because she feels like a _rich_ lady's daughter, she waves her hands around. She looks over her shoulder, as if she was about to be caught and slowly fingers the chopsticks, bringing them slowly to her mouth, captured deftly around imaginary food.

Just like a prim and proper lady.

She looks over her shoulder again, as she hears shuffling down the hallway and it gets, behind the sliding door and then turns to her guest in front of her, one who she imagines to be her company.

She brings a sleeve up to her mouth and snorts lightly into the fabric.

"Ohhoo, what a lovely dinner this is!" She whispers softly, tingled with mirth.

Her guest seems to say something, she imagines it would be light comments on the food- just like the old gossip who used to visit her mother.

"Indeed it is!" She cocks her ear in the direction of her guest with a playful smile, "Your cooking is absolutely lovely as well!"

And then she grins in delight and drawls lightly.

"That's too kind of you! Oh you certainly don't mean that!" She waves a hand dismissively. It's followed by another light-headed giggle.

"I do."

Sakura's eyes bulge out and she drops her chopsticks with a clatter, face flushing as she turns to see an older boy who looks much like Sasuke. She widens her eyes and barely manages to stutter out. He smiles at her politely, ill-disguised amusement glittering in his eyes.

"Hello, you must be Sasuke's team-mate, Sakura Haruno, I presume."

And he's _older_ , not old _old_ like Obito-sensei, but _old_ as in older than her by a few years. _And_ he was the academy heart-throb's brother.

And she found it incredibly hard to speak.

So you couldn't really blame wee little Sakura-chan for blushing profusely under his unwavering gaze. He seemed…nice and kind enough?

Her bottom lip trembles as she squawks out a response.

"H-hai!"

He smiles back at her, "Thank you for taking care of my brother."

She attempted a smile.

"I've heard a lot about you." He adds lightly.

Before she can ask him "what things" rather nervously, and "nothing bad, I hope" _\- s_ omeone opens the sliding door and she shifts around to see the Hokage and his wife.

"Good-evening, Sakura-chan," He smiles at her brightly.

She scrambles to her feet clumsily nearly tripping over the leg of the table, bowing over.

"Please raise your head, you aren't in my office!" There's a light tingly laugh. "This is my wife, Kushina."

And the red-head seems to be staring at her thoughtfully, she suddenly splits her face into a _wide_ grin and lunges forward with _astonishing_ energy, pulling her into a generous hug.

"She's sooo cute, 'ttebane!" She turns her head over to Naruto who suddenly looks stricken, "You never told me that your team-mate was Sakura-chan, ya know?" She waggles an eyebrow at him and his father. Both father and son have startlingly opposing reactions. Naruto erupts into a whine.

"Mooom, _this_ is why I don't tell you anything, 'ttebayoo! Stop being so embarrassing in front of Sakura-chan!" His eyes fall on her before he looks away immediately. He could have rivalled a tomato.

His father on the other hand grins good-naturedly.

"Kushina-chan," she hears another melodious voice. She looks up over Kushina's sleeve and sees a pretty woman through the door-way followed by a man who's sort of looking grimly put-off by the brazen display of affection and yelling. She presumes that they are Sasuke's family. "Don't squeeze her, she's losing air."

Still within Kushina's grasp, she lets her eyes slide over to the other Uchiha.

He's simply watching the scene calmly with a happy gaze. He meets her eyes and she looks down immediately.

* * *

The lady, who she learns later is Mikoto Uchiha, smiles at her and sends her a wink.

And Sakura feels the heat rush to her face, like everything is sort of fuzzy and cuddly- and everyone was so _nice_! She curls her toes in and out. Their families were all so _nice_ and _happy_. Even Sasuke's father, who sort of looks intimidating at first glance. But he's talking to Obito, asking him sharp questions about their team, and occasionally entertaining the Hokage himself with polite conversation.

But politeness or table-manners wasn't a word in Naruto's dictionary and it seemed like it wasn't one in Kushina's either.

"Mom! They have shrimp, 'ttebayo!"

"Whaaaaat?! Get it all, 'ttebane!" There were some chuckles. Sasuke and his father both sported equally disapproving looks.

The Yondaime promptly apologized only to end up with Mikoto waving it off. She grinned maliciously at Kushina, promptly swiping away the dish.

"Oh no Kushina, this is meant for _everyone_."

"But Mikoto, you know I looove your cooking, dattebane!" Kushina pouted, "You know back in my day, when I was still dating your fath-"

"Yuck mom! I'm _trying_ to eat!"

"Mikoto-chan would make me food every time I would come over to gossip with her. And then she married this old-"

"Kushina!"

There was a sharp twinge at the bottom of her stomach as she downed her bowl of rice and peeked over the rim at the explosion of interaction between the families. She noted the way Sasuke's mother grinned at her son and teased him some more while Itachi looked on, adding quips much to their father's disapproval- who was muttering something about table etiquette.

It feels like a family, a _real_ family dinner- not just dinner at a friend's.

She doesn't notice the Hokage sending her a few unreadable glances.

They have roses! Literal salad roses and tomatoes! Anko would be so jealous! Sakura could just imagine the older kunoichi's face. She makes a note to describe it all in _careful_ detail.

She also doesn't notice Itachi slip an extra piece of shrimp onto her plate.

* * *

The rain fogged her senses as it unceremoniously beat upon her wet shoulders.

Cheap rain-coats weren't particularly effective, and she wasn't particularly inclined on the color blue. But it was only shade left. Sakura pulled her hood down over her eyes as she looked over her shoulder, slightly impatient because she'd been waiting for about half an hour now. Then, the ear-piece began to crackle.

" _Sakura-chan, do you read, over."_

Sakura sighed, two weeks in, and the idiot still didn't remember to use their code names. She brought the mouth-piece up to her mouth, careful not to get it wet.

"Yes, Fox, I'm in position, over." She responded sharply, "And it's not 'Sakura-chan', baka!"

" _Eheh…sorry Flower,"_ There was slight static, " _The target is approaching. Over."_

She squinted her eyes.

"Copy that."

She pushed up her mask.

"Red, do you read? Over."

Sasuke's slightly muffled voice came through, " _Yes flower, I read you. Over."_

"Get ready to move, target has passed the checkpoint."

" _Copy that._ "

She lunged forward, as the sound of hooves meshed with the hush of rain and perched herself over-head, on a single branch. She peered through the leaves as the cart approached.

The light-gray skies above her yawned ominously.

There was a light glint in the ground as she shifted to crouch- ready to pounce. And the next few moments were a slight blur, the iron thread cut through the horse's feet, sending it neighing and screeching as it tumbled over.

Sakura jumped down onto the fallen cart, before anyone could approach. She propped herself lightly on the edge, bringing her hands up. Her sharp green eyes gauged the distance sharply as she worked her hands into seal.

She was rewarded with some confused yelling. Someone screamed out blindly.

Because all they could see was mist, white thick mist. Sakura mimicked the technique from the renowned hidden mist village, creating a genjutsu- courtesy of Anko's scrolls. Sakura nature type wasn't water so she couldn't do the _real_ thing, her type was lightning.

Obito sensei removed the paper, which crinkled.

"You have to train for years to be proficient in all chakra-natures," He told her. Sakura tightened her fists as she thought back to the moment. Because he looked at her with that look in his eye- like he _believed_ in her. Like she would.

And she wouldn't fail him now.

"Move out. Snake formation." She spoke, as she held up the genjutsu, and then attempted to locate their target.

He pushed himself out of the carriage, and peered around nervously, looking around left to right. And beside her, Sasuke and Naruto jumped down, both equally excited as they took out the flailing crew around them, knocking them out.

It was a particularly easy mission. Jump in, kill the merchant. Avoid battle for long. Leave before they know who attacked.

The goal was confusion. Chaos. Agents of chaos – Sakura liked the ring of that term.

Or so that's what Obito-sensei had told them.

Or so that's what Sakura thought as well. She inched closer to the merchant when someone flashed in front of her with impossible speed. She winced as he brought up something _big_ and she was slammed into the rocks, a few spaces ahead, tumbling and coughing on the ground.

She looked up, catching her breath and her eyes widened.

There were more body-guards - no, they looked like _bandits._ They poured into the clearing and steadily out-numbering the small genin team, nearly twenty to three. Sakura panicked. Obito-sensei should have been watching. Where was he?

Then she heard Naruto scream as someone assailed him.

Sakura didn't really have time to think when something clodded the earth beside her and she rolled over. She felt her head throb painfully before she swiveled around to duck another blow. Her body moved instinctively.

"It's a genjutsu," Her attacker barked at the people around him, "Dispel it."

And suddenly, Sakura felt the technique being lifted and her control being loosened.

One by one.

Suddenly, the mission wasn't going south, it _had_ gone south.

So she drew out her kunai and flipped backwards to give herself some room. Her mind numbly tried to grasp at the taijutsu lessons that Obito-sensei had taught her.

But experience was the best teacher, she noted later. And she shouldn't have skipped out on practice for the sale-days.

Well, she thought, the 50% offer on beef was slightly worth it. Grasping at her pouch and feeling the tags of the explosion kunai, she decided that she would use this last alternative. Her eyes flittered towards the fallen liquid, chugging from the barrel.

Okay well, she didn't have a big forehead for nothing. She bit her lip - she had to get this right.

Now to get her two moronic team-mates out of here.

Sakura brought the mouth-piece up and hastily yelled, "Abandon mission. Code Red."

And Sasuke and Naruto froze angrily, they wanted to fight. They had been starved for days of a good fight.

"But Sakura-chan," Naruto protested. "We can take them!"

"No," Sakura cried into the microphone, "We are outnumbered!" She felt her body hum painfully with the anticipation of battle, something taking over her mind. _No_ , she had to get her team-mates out of here- _safe_. Not now.

Someone swooped in front of her and she dodged another blow, and then another.

And the bandit in front of her grinned at her.

For one single moment, she thought she saw a glint of gold. Sakura widened her eyes. She felt herself being rammed, and careening through the air.

Picking herself off the ground, she gritted her teeth, _not now, dammit_. She _couldn't_ relapse now, not when she was leader.

She screamed into the microphone, "Escape. _Now._ The mission is a failure. I'll make a diversion. You have three seconds to get the hell out of here."

"Sakura what-?" She heard Naruto yell distinctly.

And with that, she pulled out a kunai with a tag at the end and closed her eyes. She heard Sasuke and Naruto, both voices speaking chaotically at the same time through her ear-piece.

She bellowed into the microphone, pushed herself off the ground.

"On three, move south, _do not look back_." She screeched.

She vaguely heard Naruto protest through the crackle, before going silent.

She dodged another blow, feeling it bruise against her skin, painfully. She brought up her fingers she began to work her mischief, whispering under her breath, "Demonic Illusion: Burning Skies".

And she flung the kunai through the expanse of bodies lodging it into the barrel of dark explosive liquid, pooling on the ground. The words, EXPLOSIVE and CAUTION all over the canister.

"Three."

Suddenly everyone in the clearing froze - as did Sasuke.

The ground started to rumble and began to pull at their feet and Sakura felt her mind and her chakra drain in the process of casting the genjutsu.

For once, Naruto's sensitivity towards any sort of distraction didn't interfere with his single-minded gusto as he stormed out of the clearing. He was ramming into frozen body-guards. And they were watching a giant fireball come at them, hot, burning and probably with the added effect of the mud, which she morphed into quicksand, mentally.

Genjutsu, the ability to morph reality, to play with the consciousness was a beautiful tool.

Sakura's eyes fell on Sasuke.

"Two..."

For a few _tense_ seconds, she grit her teeth as she watched some of them break out of her illusion and set off, after her.

And everything felt so sluggish and tired as she tried to get away. There was some laughter in the corner of her mind.

Someone grabbed onto her ankle.

She closed her eyes and attempted to kick.

"One..."

Her sight got blurry as someone wrenched their arm around her waist.

There was heat, piping _hot_ heat around her, and she screamed before someone caught hold of her.

And she could only hear Sasuke's voice in her ear.

* * *

"How could you be so stupid?"

Obito-sensei bandaged her lightly as he reprimanded them.

They were resting in a clearing, the night moon shining above them. Sakura felt her cheeks burn with embarrassment. Sasuke was glaring at her, she didn't look at him- more out of shame. Only hours later after she woke up, she found out that he had moved at the last second, and moved away from the scene toward her.

And Obito sensei grabbed the two of them at the last second, shushining away.

"Okay, where did we go wrong?"

He looked down at a particularly exhausted team-seven.

Sasuke was the first one to speak, "She used an Uchiha genjutsu." He was looking at her curiously and she bit her lip.

Naruto was seething at him, "Well she saved our lives so you can just go shove your –

"We could have taken them!" Sasuke growled, defiant, "Besides how was I supposed to know that she wanted to go blow herself up. She never let us know about _that_ part of the plan."

"No," Sakura bit out angrily, "We were out-numbered. And I expected you to leave, when I told you to leave."

"How did you manage to get an Uchiha genjutsu?"

"That's not the point here -"

"Shut up, _dobe_."

The three of them were bickering instinctively and Obito rubbed his temples.

"Alright shut up, all of you!" He roared.

There was silence.

He sighed, looking down at the sullen trio, gathering his thoughts together.

He needed to deal with the first order of business.

"I taught her that genjutsu, Sasuke." Obito informed him in a clipped tone. The younger Uchiha raised an eyebrow. Obito didn't elaborate.

Sakura on the other-hand was looking at him with some gratitude.

He sent her _the_ look and she looked back down at her toes. She hadn't meant to read the Uchiha genjutsu scroll back at Sasuke's house. She was just _curious_.

It wasn't exactly her fault that she had remembered the hand-signs, sign for sign. And it was the only thing she could think of, at the time.

He continued.

"You need to _listen_ to your team-captain." He narrowed his eyes at the boy, "Even if you don't agree with them. You all move as a single _unit_. And sometimes your team-leader is forced to make decisions that are perhaps a little bit…unorthodox, but they still have the team's interests in mind."

And finally, turning to Sakura who flinched, he softened his voice, but it was still firm.

"And Sakura, you did the right thing today. But your lack of judgement over your chakra resources cost you tremendously." His look said otherwise, he was going to have a _talk_ with her _later_.

"I guess you three have learned the third and final lesson, gauging your surroundings before attacking."

Sakura listened quietly.

He continued in a softer tone, "But you all did do the right thing by not abandoning each other."

He looked at all of them, "Those who abandon their mission are trash, but those who abandon their team-mates are worse than trash."

His eyes blazed.

All three genin were quietly contemplating his words. He cleared his throat lightly and looked up.

"Get to bed now. Naruto, you take the first watch. I'll be back soon."

And with that, he left all three genin.

* * *

When Obito arrived back at the camp, he was so deep in thought, he nearly tripped into something.

And that something rolled over, rubbing his stomach and murmuring in his sleep.

"Sakura-chan…" Naruto sighed and then started snickering, "…n-no don't feed me ramen."

Obito blinked for a few seconds before letting out a sigh.

"That moron, sleeping on the job." He narrowed his eyes, he prodded the boy over with the edge of his toe, and Naruto rolled over towards Sakura and Sasuke, who were both deep in sleep. Unfortunately, thanks to the botched mission, they had also lost most of their sleeping supplies. So the genin had to share a single blanket, using their bags as pillows.

Obito suspected that there was some protesting, because Sasuke's pack was thrown aside, a little away from their bed. He rolled his eyes when he realized that his pillow was missing, and Sasuke had it.

"Even while they sleep, they are trouble-makers." He groaned, but there was a hint of fondness in his voice.

He had arrived at the scene, rather late.

Sasuke and Sakura were huddled together and Naruto was on her other end, edging closer- drawn by the warmth of the blankets. It didn't really take half-an-hour before Sakura found herself warmly flanked on either end by both boys.

Obito sat on his blanket and regarded his cute little genin silently. He was still lost in thought for an hour or two, before he decided to wake Sasuke for the next shift.

He later vaguely noted as he lay down in his sleeping bag, the stars above him blurring - Sasuke had slipped the pillow under Sakura's head.

* * *

 _July 22nd_

 _I'm really excited about this show, Princess Emi and her magical Mushroom kingdom. It is getting very interesting lately._

 _I feel both sad and happy about the show ending so quickly._

* * *

"Hinata-chan! I missed you so much!"

HInata widened her eye as something barreled into her. She saw a hint of pink hair. The other girl squished her arms around her neck happily.

"Sakura-chan! What are you doing here?"

She looked between her team-mates and flushed as she saw Naruto and Sasuke approach. But then again, she bit her lip. Over the years, she had _sort_ of gotten over her small crush thanks to clan duties and more expectations on her back.

And Hinata had been busy, busy and tired.

Then again, she thought with a light smile, the girl in front of her would always make everything feel a lot better back during her academy days. One particular moment stood out to her from the rest.

Sakura had taken a bit of an interest in massages - or so that's what she said from all the medical books that she would pull out of her bag. Hinata wasn't really keen on letting the girl practice medical jutsu on her sore arms from practice but instead settled for a massage.

"That really feels good," Hinata smiled at the girl. Slightly wincing, because it was in all the wrong places.

Sakura grinned at her with the enthusiasm of a puppy, clearly excited to have _done_ something.

So Hinata indulged her and her bright smile and the chattering about medical books. It sort of took her mind off her father's lessons. She sort of felt the stress release off her back.

Sakura really had a lot to talk about.

"Has your team come to take the chuunin exams too?" Sakura asked her, pulling apart.

She vaguely noted the Hinata's team-mates behind her. Hinata then stepped aside when Kiba's nin-dog Akamaru decided to give Naruto a doggy hug, that is, mostly knocking him off the feet and slobbering all over his face.

The two boys then launched into _loud_ playful banter while Shino and Sasuke looked on.

"I don't know them." Sasuke informed him huffily.

"Me neither." Shino nodded agreeably.

Hinata caught the eye of Ami and Ino who were a little way off. They both gave her a resentful stare, before looking away.

She smiled back.

"Good luck with your test, Sakura-chan."

And the pinkette with an unreadable look in her eyes, momentarily hesitated before saying, "You too, Hinata-chan."

* * *

And there was a loud shout, announcing the beginning of phase I.

Ibiki Morino stepped onto the podium. He brought the mic to his lips and it screeched around the room, causing him to give one of the people who were supposed to be in charge of all the 'electronic mumbo-jumbo' a withering look. The man looked down at the volume board in front of him, nervously.

The honorable Yondaime had also been particularly enthusiastic about introducing all this electronic mess much to his displeasure. He barked into the microphone, causing several genin to clap their ears.

"Welcome to the first part of the Chuunin Exams." He then grinned, "It's going to be _hard._ I hope you all brought your sharpened pencils because there are over a hundred questions-," There were several groans over the crowd, he stepped his foot down.

"And every question gotten wrong will affect your team's score. Together, your team has to get a total score of at least 290 - any less, and neither of you three will not be able to go through."

He then rose his voice a pitch louder, "But if I catch _anyone,_ and I do mean anyone- cheating, my chuunin will effectively take you out, and you will never be able to take the exams again."

One of the chuunin held up their kunai, coated thickly with something that dripped, something gooey and _green_.

Sakura gulped and looked at her team-mates. Naruto was looking slightly sick and Sasuke had his eyes narrowed.

* * *

Ino banged her head on the table, causing one of the chuunin examiners to give her a sharp glance. She sighed, bringing a manicured hand up to her temples and rubbing it lightly.

Oh good grief, she didn't deserve this.

This test was impossible.

She tapped her pencil idly onto the desk and her baby-blue eyes scanned around the room once more. All the other ninja were cheating however. She watched with wide eyes as Sasuke-kun's eyes lit up and followed Sakura's pencil movements.

She smacked her head. Of course, forehead. Forehead was brilliant.

Grinning to herself, she brought her fingers together, forming signs. There was a familiar jolt of her body and her head fell to the desk, causing one of the chuunin to send her a glance, but he did not act on it.

And she invaded the girl's mind.

Sakura's mindscape, Ino noted with slight disgust, was depressing, cold and made chills run down her spine. She rubbed her shoulders and shivered lightly as she looked at the examination paper in front of her, photographically processing the words.

There was the sound of cluttering behind her.

Ino raised her eyebrows.

"What the fuck?" She muttered, her voice bounced off the walls of the dark mindscape.

And it seemed like someone entered the space, she whipped around, ready to leave when something stopped her.

And looking down she widened her eyes at the blood pooling around her feet. Ino screamed, and Sakura in turn screamed as well. Several students around her looked at her in alarm.

Ino clasped her mouth, Sakura grinned.

"Eheheh…sorry?" She muttered. Her eyes slid over to Ino's body lying limp on her desk.

Ino on the other hand just wanted to get the _fuck_ out of there- she slightly regretted using the mind-transfer jutsu.

"Forehead, you are one messed up kid," She muttered, looking around wide-eyed. The expanse lit up, and Ino looked up.

Her hands fell to her sides.

* * *

Sakura breathed hard as she felt herself return to her senses. She scanned the room.

Her eyes landed on Ino Yamanaka, who locked gazes with her. Fear evident in her eyes.

* * *

The end of the exam consisted of only 99 questions, Sakura raised her hand to inform the examination proctor.

"Uhm…" She balked slightly under Ibiki's intimidating stare, "Why are there only 99 questions? Where's the 100th question."

She felt several blazing glares sent in her direction. She swallowed.

Ibiki stuck a pinky in his ear and grinned at her.

"Your name?"

"Sakura Haruno." She answered promptly. One of the ninja in her peripheral was giving her a certain look, drawing a finger over his throat and sneering at her.

"Ahh…It almost slipped my mind. But since you want that question so badly, pinky." He drawled. The glares increased in annoyance.

Someone cracked their knuckles.

Sakura felt sweat run down her temples.

"The thing about the 100th question is this," he barked out into the room, throwing the microphone aside, "Answer it, and you will bumped up to the next part- regardless of whatever bullshit you wrote down. If you answer wrongly _and_ you will not get to progress through the examination, or take it _ever_ again."

"Only one person from each team will be able to answer it."

The room blinked.

"Do you want it or not?"

There was silence as she hesitated. And people began to shuffle around, leaving the room.

The exam was particularly easy for her, and judging by Naruto's face, it seemed like he hadn't done so well. He was beating himself up over it. She inched closer to him and gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. He looked at her with a light smile which she returned.

But say, in a perfect world- if they had all scored 300 points together. They would be 297 points under. But it wasn't a perfect world, and three points _could_ make a tremendous difference.

But there was something else, something about the 100th question.

The questions on the exam themselves were hard- there was no way that any _normal_ genin would have been able to answer it.

The test was set-up for failure anyways.

It must had said a lot about her team's confidence in her when Sasuke nodded his head at the blonde and Naruto in turn hollered out, echoing through the room.

"Ask us the damn question already! Sakura-chan will kick _ass_ for team Seven! We ain't afraid of _one_ stupid question, dattebayo!"

Sakura smiled.

Good ninjas always look underneath the underneath the underneath.

* * *

And in that room left were: two teams from sound, sand, one from mist, another from stone and the Konoha eleven, nine fresh new genin from the academy and another trio from the year above them. Incidentally, one of the only genin team that had still managed to remain within the Genin progam from their year.

Kiba, not to be out-done by the honorable idiot son, drew his sunglass clad team-mate into a head-lock and answered back, "Yeah?! Well Shino will kick your team's ass!"

Hinata smiled at Shino encouragingly and the boy glowered as he pushed his spectacles up the bridge of his nose.

Shikamaru let out a sigh of protest as Chouji clapped his shoulder. Ino didn't say anything, she was still looking at the pinkette with a slightly distant stare before she turned to Shikamaru.

"You aren't going to lose to her." She whispered scathingly. She called out slightly louder, "We have a genius Nara on our team, son of Konoha's master tactician- do you think you can honestly win?"

Shikamaru slumped his shoulders and sighed heavily. His eyes slid over to the pinkette.

"Of course," there was a slight laugh and Ino turned around to look at a girl with two buns for hair, hands on either hip. Her eyes glinted as she looked towards her team-mates, "We have the Hyuuga prodigy."

She said it like it was all that mattered and the Hyuuga smiled smugly.

And the decidedly loud boy with the green jump-suit nodded his head and literally _bellowed_ , "Oh yes! The fires of competition burn in our eyes! Konoha's fire still burns on strongly!"

This sort of set off the other teams at unease, making it more of a village issue - than a team issue.

Ibiki noted this, and smiled to himself lightly, his eyes fell on the pinkette - watching him calmly.

Turns out that this batch of Konoha brats weren't so bad after all, outnumbering the other villages by much. And well, the Yondaime had truly raised a generation that was worth noting.

So he threw his head back and laughed loudly into the microphone - causing several people to jump.

"Congratulations on passing the first phase of the exams!"

* * *

Anko Mitarashi wasn't the second proctor of the examination as originally planned- in turn, she was supposed to deal with _something_ else. That's all Uchiha Shisui was told. He also never did too well with crowds. Not with a bunch of _loud_ , elated, pompous genin brats.

"Oi quieten down guys!"

Naruto elbowed Sasuke and whispered from the corner of his mouth- because they were _right_ in front of the older boy.

"That's your _cousin_ , isn't he?"

Sakura was on his other end, looking up at the Uchiha with some awe. Shisui was a prodigy with genjutsu, and renowned throughout the village. He was kind of famous. She leaned over to ask Sasuke if she could have an autograph.

"Hey Sasuke?" She whispered and the older Uchiha sent her a sharp glare, causing her to straighten up.

"For the second part of the examination- you will all have to get to the center of the forest, the tower, with _both_ scrolls! On the way there will be multiple obstructions however."

He attempted a more theatrically Ibiki-like voice.

"The team who manages to get past with all the obstructions wins!"

He grinned happily at the genin who looked blankly back at him, unimpressed. It seemed like the first test was enough excitement for all of them.

Tough crowd.

* * *

"Sasuke!" Naruto screamed. You always needed to learn how to _guage_ your surroundings. The forest of death was supposed to be like that. There was _no_ Obito-sensei to save them this time. And everything was _going_ south.

Sasuke was groaning in pain in the arms of the strange woman, clutching at his neck.

He screamed out, a high-pitched scream, as a wave of pain assaulted him. The woman grinned at the blonde below her.

"Well, well, I got what I came for." She cooed as she cradled the boy in her arms before slinging him over her shoulder. Something whizzed behind the trees and Orochimaru, the Snake sannin glanced toward the last and final pink team-mate with a second glance.

Her arms limp as she peered out into the splintered catastrophe through a tree-bark.

Kabuto's _source_ of information, he noted with light amusement.

"Thank you - Sakura-chan!"

The newest generation of Konoha shinobi were great. They had never known any war. Their Hokage had been doing a _fine_ job, raising a bunch of children who had never _known_ the horrors of this world, Orochimaru thought with a smirk.

How pitiful.

The Sannin didn't blame her however. With the amount of killing intent radiated throughout the battle and the wreckage around- he didn't blame the girl for not entering the fight - a single time. He turned his heel.

* * *

 _July 23rd_

 _The final test has begun for the Ninja-Lord. I thought he was very brave to face the great, giant guards of the evil sister. I'm so excited for the finale!_

* * *

And when Uchiha Shisui stepped into the clearing after several bright sparks were sent up into the night-sky, alerting him and Itachi to the team's dropout position. He saw the Hokage's son on his knees, staring down at his bloody hands.

There were dead snakes on the ground, and splintered trees. He shivered and his blood ran cold. Could it be? Could the rumours have been true?

"Naruto?" He frowned at the boy who was snivelling.

"He's gone, he's really gone." He said over and over again.

Shisui waited for him to continue.

"She took Sasuke." He brought up his bright cerulean eyes up to the older boy, his lips parted again, this time slowly, "She took him away and I _couldn't_ fight back."

Itachi frowned as he appeared behind Shisui. And the bewildered cousin turned to look at Itachi.

"Naruto, Sasuke's here."

And the blonde widened his eyes as the unconscious form of Sasuke was held within the grasp of the other Uchiha. His neck was smooth and clean.

Shisui scratched his head, "Who's missing then?"

Itachi's sharingan lit up as he looked at the corpse of the snakes surrounding Naruto.

* * *

 _July 29th_

 _Today is the chuunin exams, I'm really excited for it. The final episode of Princess Emi and the Magical mushroom kingdom also airs today, but I might have to miss it._

* * *

A bottle smashed against the wall, shattering into pieces, falling down to the ground.

Sakura, clutching at her neck, snapped open her eyes. Kabuto was swearing in the background as Orochimaru lightly placed his head on his palm, examining the girl with cool yellow eyes.

She sat up, feeling her hands bound together by some kind of brace. The room was almost dark.

"Kabuto-kun." Orochimaru intoned with a hint of command in his voice, "Please leave the bottles alone."

He turned towards the girl who had tape over her mouth, she was watching him with matched apathy. And if Orochimaru was angry, he barely showed it.

There was a sense of killing intent in the room, though, as he regarded the girl. He reached forward and ripped the tape from her mouth.

And this ugly little girl was smiling at him, a maniacal gleam in her eyes.

* * *

 _Contd. of July 29th_

 _I think even if I don't see the final episode, I hope the evil sister meets her end and Anko is wrong, the prince-lord will defeat the evil sister!_

 _And everyone will live happily ever after!_

* * *

 _A/N:_ _ **December 10**_ _ **th**_ _ **Reupload**_ _:_

 _It's been a while you guys._

 _I decided to go back to this and work on it, sorting out run-on sentences, spelling errors. To be honest, I'm not so confident with the out-put of EITR. Yes, chapter 6 was written out over these past few months. But I think I held that back because I wanted to see what was confusing. It turns out that the plot structure was fragmented for a lot of readers._

 _So yes, I wrote EITR like that. It's more psychological in nature. Essentially, you see what the narrator wants you to see – not everything…_

 _But that will all sort of be explained, eventually (hopefully). Do send me questions, talk to me via inbox and on my tumblr._

 _I'm not scary I promise!_


	3. Chapter 3

**I own nothing.**

 _December 12_ _th_ _: Guess who's editing this? Yeah. My lord. I wish I could actually rewrite this. Maybe I will. This chapter was and is intended to be a "sister" chapter to the previous chapter. It goes in and fills in the 'fragments' or choppy time-line. It explicates 'what exactly happened' in the last 3 chapters._

 _Thank you for sticking with me!_

* * *

 _ONE MONTH AGO_

The explosion still rang in her ears.

On the journey home from her first mission as leader, Obito-sensei lodged them into an inn by the road. It was close to a small village. The owner gave the three scruffy genin a shrewd look over before going back to haggling prices with the older Uchiha.

Sakura rubbed her bandaged arms. She glanced over at her team-mate from the corner of her eye. Sasuke's hands were stuffed into his pockets. Half of his face was tucked into to the collar of his shirt and he was staring down at the floor tiles. It was almost as if he found it interesting.

It was nothing short of a-w-k-w-a-r-d.

He had been silent around her lately, even more so than usual. Sakura felt a small twinge of guilt in the bottom of her stomach. Probably because she knew the cause.

It happened three days ago when Sakura had been feeling a lot more appreciative about her teacher's existence.

So she thanked him.

He looked up at her, pausing from reading the crinkly map. Naruto and Sasuke were given fishing duties. So it was just the two of them.

"Sakura-chan, that's what a Sensei is there for. I don't want anything to happen to any of my cute genin," He gave her a smile, a wide happy cheery-cheeked smile- there were stars glinting in his eyes. And then his face turns serious. She flinched.

"But Sakura chan, you need to apologize to Sasuke for using his family scroll."

He launched into an explanation as to _why_ it was wrong. And the more he talked, the guiltier Sakura felt. She felt her cheeks heat up in embarrassment as she thought back to it.

So she decided to do something about it. Something decent for a change instead of ignoring the thick air.

"Sasuke," she called softly. And he simply looked up at her, questioning stare in his obsidian eyes.

For a single second, she felt like the air was knocked out of her, because the twinge turned into a punch in the gut. Hard.

Honorable was never really an adjective to describe someone like Sakura. She stole. She lied with a straight face.

She was also someone who cheated her way through the Konoha market-place. No one saw the loss of two tomatoes. You couldn't cry over spilt milk (or stolen).

But scrolls were a different matter.

But then again, Sakura always tried her damned hardest to be honorable, upright - all those words enunciated with pride from the lips of richer, older, wrinkly people who always had known better than her.

From the Hokages in her textbook to Iruka-sensei- the mighty village of Konohagakure no Sato breathed those principles deeply.

But what marked the difference, wasn't the fact that she _wasn't_ supposed to use the scroll. It was the fact that it was something important to Sasuke. Even thieves valued other people's feelings, because you _never_ stole in broad-daylight.

It was appealing at the time, she thought.

His family, his warm, kind family. They would be so disappointed

She was slightly intimidated by the clan-head himself and of what he would do to her. The Uchiha were head of the _law_ enforcement in the village. Her mind raced through twenty-one different scenarios involving sharp knives and red-eyes.

And she'd be banned from all future events at his house. So with eyes watering up, she looked down at her feet.

"I'm sorry I used your family genjutsu scroll," she says, voice crackling very sincerely.

Before Sasuke could respond, Obito-sensei entered the vicinity, with some pomp and a triumphant smile.

"Sleep tight," he informs them and then crackles into a grin, "I'll be making you three work yourself to the bone tomorrow. We'll be _doubling_ the pace!"

He smiled enthusiastically.

And both genin grimace as they join their blonde team-mate, who's seated on one of the couches. He's actually _reading_ a book. This catches Sakura's attention.

"Hey! Naruto, what are you looking at?" She asks him, because she's never seen the blonde with a book…willingly. Back at the academy, his textbooks were often donned with mustaches and funny hats.

She could tell because he dropped one of them once, during their academy days, in front of her.

And there opened was the first Hokage had a twirly moustache and a speech bubble at the side eloquently placed over his ear, saying "Poop". She bent and lifted it gingerly off the floor while Naruto looked on, slightly stricken.

"This must be yours," she told him, quietly.

She places the textbook in his hands. She thought about telling him off for not taking good care of it, because her own were second-hand. But he just looks so flustered and pink, that she decides to drop it with a pleasant smile.

Then the thought occurs to her, in her third year, she finally managed to procure a set of neat textbooks, the name Uchiha Itachi on the top right-hand corner of the book.

Smiling to herself, she was broken out of her musing about the significance, when Obito called out to him.

Her question went unanswered.

"I'm lodging you three in one room tonight, try not to kill each other."

He looked pointedly at Naruto and Sasuke. They snorted in unison.

Sakura blinked, "But sensei, what about you?"

Obito let out an exaggerated sigh, "You see Sakura-chan, the problem with being the Hokage's former student is this…" He let out a groan that was reminiscent of a wounded animal, "I always have to run on a lot more errands for-"

"Liar! You are probably going to get with some lady! Yeuck!"

Obito grimaced, opening his mouth to correct the hyperactive blonde. But he was interrupted, again.

"What! But what about Rin-san!" Sakura cried out, and Obito's eyes bulged out. _How did she know?_

And from Sakura's disapproving frown to Naruto and Sasuke's accusing stare, Obito groans again. He did not have to deal with this. Not when his dear _former_ teacher made him an errand boy. Fun.

Obito suspected that this was payback for all the trouble he'd given him as a genin.

"Just go get tucked in already, will ya?" He pushes him towards the room in which they were supposed to be lodged in, "Lights out at 10. No buts. Children need to grow."

That's when Naruto dropped the elusive book.

"Hey wait," Sakura reaches for it.

She froze as the page flips over to the picture of someone familiar. And the artist's rendition of the man brings memories back to her mind, a flood of memories.

"Sakura-chan?"

She picks it up and stares at the page, eyes scanning over the image of the man, grinning at her. He's as vivid as her memories, her dreams, and her nightmares.

"What's wrong?"

She snaps close the book, quietly. And the surge of uncomfortableness is back. Like the sort of feeling you get between a comfortable bed and _dark_ closet.

It wasn't night yet. Nightmares were for night. Be _normal_.

"Take deep breaths," Rin's voice floats over to her, "Count backwards from ten."

And she does exactly that. Her breathing evening out. Ten, nine…

"Nothing," she responds and pushes past them, "Where's the room?"

Seven…six…five….

And Obito says nothing as he pulls out the keys and unlocks the door.

Four…three…two…

And the crazy laughter in her head subsides, she's still gripping onto the book tightly, knuckles white.

One.

She looks up at the room.

"Wow, this room looks great!"

* * *

Later that night, she hears nothing but cluttered sounds in the background, her mind still blank, palms on each edge of the chair. The book is splayed open on her lap as she reads the lines over and over again.

She vaguely realizes then, she's been staring at the single page for a while now. Naruto and Sasuke are snoring in the background as the clock strikes two am.

His roughly drawn image stares back at her.

He doesn't have a name, he's just an assassin hired, S-rank missing-nin. So they just call him 'gold teeth'.

Then she reads about his exploits. Wanted for several counts of murder. No survivors.

She reads that line again.

Sakura can't really figure out this feeling inside her belly. Was it anger? Was it frustration? She runs a hand through her hair, gritting her teeth.

And he's presumed dead.

What was she expecting to feel? Happiness? Or did she want revenge for her father's murder or maybe just wanted to know _why_? Blood runs down from her lower lip and she licks it off distractedly.

And truth be told, she'd never really thought about it at that moment.

Mother and Father decided that she could be a kunoichi because she could earn money. The shinobi life paid well, but it was bloody work. Her mother did her hair on the first day. She just told her that it was a great opportunity to _meet_ the other clan-boys and girls. She pulled the pink hair up into a pretty bow.

She flips back to the front of the book and looks at the year. Four years ago. She closes her eyes, reminding herself to buy a bingo-book.

That's when Obito-sensei decides to interrupt her musing. He'd been watching her for the past fifteen minutes.

"Ah sorry," she looks down at the book, closing it, "What do you need me for, sensei?

"Sakura-"

"I think I need new weapons too. Do you think the shops are open?" she says, her voice riding a pitch higher placing the book on the table beside her. She waves her hands underneath the chair, grasping at the straps of her sandals and puts them on. Sasuke stirs.

"Sakura."

"Yes?" She looks up into his eyes, and Obito's eyes look awfully tired.

"Come, walk with me." He says.

And once they leave the inn and into the quiet village, stars glittering over them. He's walking ahead of her. And she's still lost in her own thoughts.

"Do you want to talk?"

She looks down at the ground, observing the pebbles, "About what?"

What's there to talk about?

"Whatever is bothering your pretty head," he says lightly.

She doesn't respond. He chooses to talk.

"My parents died when I was little," He begins and she looks up at the back of his head, "When I was this little," He gestures at the ground, not turning around.

"And they died on a mission, that's all I was told." He continues.

"Back then, I was a failure at being a shinobi. So the clan really didn't know what to do with Obito the moron and number one Uchiha prankster! I swore I would become Hokage and show them all!"

Sakura smiled a little at that. He sounded a little bit like Naruto when he was a kid.

"And then I met Kakashi and the kid was just the biggest ass ever," He said, talking to the thin air in front of him, "Still is." He added with a sigh.

"But you see, back then, he hated everyone and everything. We had this mission, and he nearly sacrificed Rin for the completion."

Sakura looked up, eyes wide.

"What? He allowed Rin-san to _die_?" She asked, thinking of her sweet and kind therapist, "B-but why?"

"Nearly, Sakura-chan- that's where I left him, to save her. And Rin and I both got in trouble until our teacher arrived," He said softly, "With him of course."

"I was really really mad at him for months and months, and I truly didn't get Kakashi. Eventually we got over it. I think he apologized to Rin, or something I don't know. But he's always been a _really_ angry kid, and a really frustrated kid."

His voice softened, "And you know, It's only years later that I found out why, he was still angry at his father for committing suicide after a particularly _bad_ mission."

He paused, taking a breath of air.

"His father sacrificed his team-mates for the sake of the completion. And several months later, Kakashi found his body in their living room, when he was barely five years old."

Sakura didn't say anything, she felt her fists clench together tightly at her sides.

"I think part of him really wanted to _prove_ his dad wrong. No, dad. I'm not you. I think he was just a really lonely kid who still couldn't see what was in front of him. Still clinging onto his father's mistakes."

She looked down, deep in thought as she processed the story. Obito whistled to himself, he stopped talking.

"Sensei," Her voice crackled, "Why are you telling me this?"

She doesn't get it, but she does. There's a hint of a warning in his voice.

Obito-sensei has always paid close attention to her, and the words hanging unspoken between them. And for a second, she realizes the underlying implications in his words.

 _There's no point pursuing yesterday. You have to look at what's in front of you. You have to watch out for your team-mates._

"I'm feeling sort of chatty tonight," He laughs.

 _It's not worth it._

* * *

 _Three weeks ago_

"They made you jounin-sensei? Oh Kami, that's best thing I heard all week!" There's rather loud laughter filling up the hallway outside the Hokage's office.

"Shisui-gaki." He greets with a twitchy lower-lid.

And the brat grins, raising half a hand in greeting and grinning at him. He then continues cackling like a crow in pain.

"Obito-sensei? I can't believe it! Wait! Who's the unlucky bunch of brats?"

"Don't you have some _long_ mission to get to?" Obito scowled, "Where's Itachi? Don't you usually bug him when you get back? Don't you have someone _else_ to annoy on this fine day?"

He gestured at the rain splattering against the windows thickly.

The younger Uchiha either seems to be oblivious to the sound of his voice or just prefers to ignore it.

"Wait wait, Itachi was telling me something about this- but I wasn't really listening," His cousin stops with sudden realization and a grin spreads over his face. Almost like a kid who'd just found a bag full of candy.

"You mean you don't _ever_ listen-"

"So are you Sasuke's teacher?" Shisui interjects. Eyes shining with mischief.

And the withering look that Obito sends the boy only confirms the latter's thoughts.

"HAHAHAHA! Oh man! How does Fugaku-ojisan feel about it?" And the boy stiffens up in an astonishing resemblance of the clan-head, chin jutted out and everything, "Obito, you must not fail to teach Sasuke the best and nothing but the very best. This is for the future of our great and glorious clan."

He sounds like someone stuffed cotton in his mouth.

And Obito cracks into a grin, despite his hostility. Between him and Shisui, there were years of war. And a lot of getting under each-other's skin, or frogs or any kind of harmless garden creatures into their pants.

Nothing of the malicious sort. Usually.

But perhaps the only thing they both held in mutual regard was their great and insufferable clan duties.

"Wrong," he says and folds his arms stiffly over his chest, looking straight at him with narrowing eyes, "You got the pose wrong, amateur."

And the two Uchiha guffaw in laughter, before the Hokage opens the door and out comes none other than their much esteemed Uchiha clan-head.

And they both stop laughing promptly.

"Ah…I see that you are back from your mission, Shisui." Fugaku informs the younger Uchiha boy with a withering glance, "Walk with me, I have to talk to you about the _multiple_ meetings you skipped out on."

And Obito grins as Shisui scratches the back of his head nervously, "Yes, yes, uncle. You see I was deathly sick, and I could also see granny calling me from the other side of the river-"

The elder Uchiha nods at Obito, who returns it with a respectful smile.

"Ah welcome back from your mission, Obito," His former teacher smiles at him interrupting his thoughts, "Get in, I need to talk to you."

* * *

And a minute later, Obito informs him about the mission and it's botched ending. From what he surveyed, several men were caught up in the explosion and it was completed- albeit messily. But Minato seemed more interested in Sakura.

"Tell me more about her," He said, laying his head on his hands, "If I had known she had such an interest, I could have put her with Kurenai."

He rubs his chin thoughtfully.

"Sensei, she's brilliant. She managed to use an advanced genjutsu twice in a row."

"Oh?"

"Brilliant kid," Obito repeats, not elaborating further. His teacher gives him a look. Because, he needn't know _everything_.

"There aren't many non-Uchihas with a potential for genjutsu." The Hokage says slowly, "Not many with such _excellent_ potential, you say she has good chakra-control as well?"

"Yes, she could very well try her hand at medical-ninjutsu as well." Obito suggests, perhaps he could divide the attention to her genjutsu talents onto something far more…medical.

Because medical ninjutsu was challenging enough to grasp her attention, right?

Because genjutsu and mentally…'scarred' individuals didn't exactly go well together. And that was one of the reasons as to why genjutsu was so underused. Even his clan barely had the prodigious talent to _use_ genjutsu in the heat of battle. It was mostly used to break the enemy's concentration, but never so…offensively.

Obito had to admit, he was slightly impressed at the wreckage. And slightly afraid.

"Perhaps," Minato frowns at his behaviour. And Obito has an inkling of a feeling that this is not the last time they would be talking about this.

"Okay then, tell me now, how ready do you think your team is?"

And Obito thinks back to the mission, and to all the moments that followed after. He thinks about Naruto first. Even though the boy has a bit of a way to go, he'll mature soon, real fast. Obito notes that he _thinks_ before acting or taking _any_ sort of action. The blonde actually pays close attention. Obito suspects that it's the pinkette's influence on him.

His prowess in fuuinjutsu is also growing as well as his prowess over his Uzumaki family abilities.

And occasionally he asks intelligent questions, like yesterday.

"Ne Obito?" The blonde scrunches his face in thought, conveniently neglecting to attach sensei to the end of his name, "Do you think people under ANBU masks smile when their photograph is taken?"

And the Uchiha opened his mouth to respond and then shut it.

He then thinks to Sasuke.

Uchihas were a species of their own kind, stern, rule-abiding _rigid_ folk that Obito had the pleasure of riling up on occasion with his unorthodox personality.

Nonetheless, ending up as Jounin sensei with none other than Fugaku's son was enough for him to wonder if Minato had truly cracked. It was in this very office, nearly eight months ago - he remembered it clearly.

"They kind of hate me, if you recall," He said rather bitterly. He had just been informed back then that he would be a Jounin-sensei.

"It was only temporary," Minato informed him calmly, "And they didn't _hate_ you Obito- If _you recall_ several occasions, you did let out a huge number of squawking chick -"

"Okay but think about it, black-sheep of the Uchiha clan teaching one of _the_ potential clan heirs -"

"Can you think of anyone else suited for the job?" Minato interrupted him, raising a brow, "Kakashi's off with ANBU and Rin's busy with her medical job at the hospital. I'd rather it was one of _my_ own students who would teach my son."

And so Obito was stuck dealing with the loud blonde who was a spitting image of himself. And then there was the mini-Fugaku.

But team dynamics tend to sort of fall into place as you begin to get used to the dangerous missions thrown in your face. And Sasuke _may_ bicker with Naruto and act sort of aloof with Sakura, but the Uchiha cares, in his own way, whether it was taking the blow for his team-mate or helping them out during practice.

And Obito grins to himself, because Sasuke does it when he thinks his sensei does notice. Oh Sasu-pyon! He was so fun to tease.

And then finally there's Sakura.

"I'm sorry for stealing your clan's scroll," she tells him, when he firmly informs her not to use _any_ sort of technique without his permission. And there's just this honest yet _raw_ look in her eyes.

No, Obito might not get this entire jounin-sensei thing right, but he wouldn't give up on it.

He smiles.

"I think they are ready."

* * *

 _Day of the chuunin exams_ …

And they were informed to bring along with them, weapons, whatever they could get, explosives or bombs. Sakura looks down at the glinting steel as the afternoon sun sets in, through the windows of her apartment. She sharpens them, bringing the single stone to the metal of her kunai.

The sound is sort of soothing to her mind. Because Sakura's _nervous_.

"There will probably be a huge monsters, no biggie," Anko digs out her nose languidly, sprawled out on her couch, the night before.

"What?" Sakura squawks, "I'm not ready for this." She paces around in her living room.

"Yep."

"I mean we c-could _die!_ " She screeches, "I'm too young to die!"

"Yep."

"Or worse, we'll get eternally lost in the forest of death and I'll never get to use that coupon, ever."

"Oooh where did you keep it?" Anko's sit ups excitedly, now interested.

Sakura scowls, "You aren't really being supportive."

Anko sighs and rolls over, hands resting under her head.

"It's just a dumb test, you fail, you fail. Get over it."

"A-and what if Naruto and Sasuke…get ahead. And I'm left behind." Sakura trembles. Anko doesn't respond immediately.

"Iunno, I'm sure you'll figure it out. The whole point of the test is _team_ work or whatever." Anko grumbles, "Now scram, kid, I want my beauty sleep."

Teamwork, Sakura muses over the word, bringing up the kunai to eyelevel and piercing her fingers accidently. She watches the blood falls down onto the table.

Blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.

Maybe she could catch up to Naruto, to Sasuke. She would protect them, they would stand together. Her fear wouldn't hold her back.

Maybe letting go wasn't such a bad thing after all.

* * *

 _Phase II of the Chuunin exams…_

"Everything is so creepy." Naruto mumbled, "Teme, I think I saw that shadow move."

Sasuke groaned, "Stop being such a baby, you are a shinobi."

"Why you little - I'm _not_ a baby!" Naruto barked at him.

Sakura kneaded her fists into her head and lay back, skin prickling. She felt sort of antsy. Then something whispered in her ear.

 _You'll lead your team-mates to their down-fall…kukukukuku…_

She widened her eyes and sat up immediately. Naruto looks over to her.

"Is something wrong Sakura-chan?"

"You are wrong." She whispers under her breath.

Sasuke is looking over to her oddly. And Naruto is on high-alert.

"Hey, what the fuck is going on?"

 _No one special,_ it whispers to her. _Nothing at all_.

Sakura sighs before laying back again on her back.

"Nothing at all." She calls out to them. "Get some rest will you, we'll move out soon."

The two of them give her an odd look before turning over. Sakura watches them, their breaths evening over the thick night over the forest. She then closes her eyes and clenches her fists.

No, she wouldn't give in. She wouldn't give into this. She wouldn't let her team-mates down.

And right as soon as _thinks_ that, something else takes over her mind.

* * *

She often wondered if she was truly insane.

But then again it didn't really matter. Because this was absolutely the worst time to be brought _here_. Not while her team-mates were vulnerable on her watch.

There was a lot of tinkling laughter echoing around the dark chamber. And you could vaguely make out the outline of her old living room. Slivers of moonlight shining through the blinds of the windows, onto the walls. But there was a single candle shining, glowing over the room, and over the piece of wallpaper where a little girl was suspended in, behind the floral stripes.

She looked up at Sakura and laughed again.

But then again, Sakura thought, while she was here - she would also push away this part of her mind for good.

"Well, well, well," She whispers, "What do we have here?"

"I'm done. I _don't_ want to _deal_ with you anymore." Sakura bites out, "I can fight on my own."

The girl, who looks like her, dark tangled pink hair, stretches her hands forward starts to part the flower wall-paper to look at her closely. Cut lips, bloody lips stretch into a smile.

"Are you sure about that?" She asks breathlessly and she brings a bruised and bloody hand towards Sakura's face, palm trailing over her cheek, "Are you really sure about that, sweet little Sakura-chan?"

"I-I'm n-not a-afraid," Sakura stutters out firmly, "I'm not going to let them down."

There's a harsh bark of a laugh.

"Okay," The girl smiles and brings her fingers up to her temples. There's a jolt of shock running through her head. The memories flood through her head.

The fog settles into the mindscape.

She sees Kabuto talking. And for fifteen long minutes, the dialogue pronounces itself out. And with every word he speaks, her eyes widen.

"Three months from now," He tells her, "You will lead Uchiha Sasuke where I tell you to, during the chuunin exams. You will listen to every word I say, your body will obey."

She blinks her eyes back into the present.

"W-what's this?" Sakura takes a step back as the girl who's watching her intently with cruel eyes, laughs. A soft tinkling, laughter spreads around the scape, and for the first time Sakura notes the pool of blood underneath her feet.

"Just remember this, if you lose control of your mind," The girl smiles at her, a grin on her face, "You'll die and so will I. And I don't want to die yet, Sakura-hime."

"So I will rip through your soul and fill out in your mind," She brings her face closer to the hysterical girl, "And I will be the Queen."

"You are nothing but the Evil sister." Sakura yells at her hysterically, "I won't let you let anything happen to Sasuke."

"Oh Sakura-chan, I won't," She smiles at her, "But _you_ will." She places a palm over her chest.

She gets pushed away into the darkness, and jolts into consciousness.

* * *

And Sakura snaps open her eyes and then realizes that she's holding a limp Sasuke in her arms, Naruto is a little away, tossing and turning - oblivious in sleep. She's walking away with the boy, she's holding him with strength that she didn't know she possessed. And that sort of strength is draining from her body.

And then with a jolt of shock, she realizes that there's blood trickling down the boy's head.

With a jolt of cold sweat- she pieces two and two together. She lays him down and draws herself back, feeling for his pulse with shivering fingers.

"N-n-noo! She says softly, "Please, Sasuke I'm s-so sorry. I don't know what I've done."

The forest is thick and dark as she pulls out his sweat-band and lays it over his forehead, dabbing the sweat lightly. He groans and she lets out a soft sigh.

There was someone in this forest, someone waiting for her team-mates, she began to think. She looked down at the Uchiha, and thought about calling for help. Her mind processes the events from the flashback. From the information that _she_ has given her.

Sasuke was not _safe_ with _her_. Perhaps this was part of the test- perhaps calling for help was not the best idea.

He's coming. She can feel it. Because the invasive chakra in her system responds to his presence.

He's coming to take Sasuke.

 _But team-work._ "Yes team-mates," she says hoarsely, "But I don't know what he's done to this body."

More laughter.

 _I could help you, you know_.

"No," she grimaces, "I can't trust you."

But she would face him. She would not be afraid. Sakura would not let the _other_ girl win.

But what would he want with Sasuke? It was nothing good, as far as Sakura's perceptive mind could tell.

And slowly bringing the boy up to her other team-mate, she settles him down, gently. Then forming a set of shadow clones. She looks at the two identical versions of herself gazing back at her, expectantly.

A plan buzzes through her head.

"I don't know very much about our enemy," she whispers to them, careful not to wake up her team-mates, "But I need both of you to do something. Clone A, you will take Sasuke as far as possible and _hide_ with him, till the battle is over. No matter what happens, keep him _safe_. Clone B, you will be me, don't draw his attention to yourself- and _stay_ out of the fight. Let me and Naruto fight."

Sakura takes a deep breath and then looks back at Clone A, a startling, impassive version of her, "And please call for help if something goes wrong."

She hands them lighters, two spark lighters, one of them belonged to Sasuke.

* * *

Clone A successfully managed to hide Sasuke through some shadowed bushes. The girl then set up an illusion, barring any of the other teams from coming near the Uchiha. The barrier muddles their senses, so he's completely safe.

She perched herself between the folds of a tree bark and blended into the shadows as she waited. A large centipede crawled down the wooden surface. Clone A watched its back, its glistening back, reflecting off the moonlight.

Clone A scratched her head as she felt this sort of nervous impulse to just _disobey_. It was a foreign chakra in her system- _hypnotic_.

"Take the Uchiha boy and _leave_." It says to her.

"I won't disobey Sakura like that," she responds firmly.

And roughly thirty long minutes from the plan's execution, when the moon was high overhead, shining atop the clearing, large, reddish and ominous- she came. She or rather-he came with the rustle of leaves, with the sound of hissing in the dark. And team seven was _waiting_ , Naruto had been woken up, to see the two Sakuras.

"Eh what's going on? Teme? Sakura?"

Sakura attempted the strongest Sasuke impression and 'Hnned'. She glanced over, at the bushes where the lady was hiding, her strong chakra senses catching sight of the strange lady.

"Impressive, catching onto my chakra-signature." The woman crackled as she walked up to them, the leaves parting for her.

She watched Sasuke-Sakura with interest and Sakura felt her bravado weaken.

"Naruto," Sasuke-Sakura, spoke, "Get ready to fight."

And Naruto's ears perked up as he looked at her, "Who is this?" He growled, settling into fighting stance.

"Be prepared to fight for your life." Sakura told him.

Clone B tightened her grip on the _sharpened_ kunai, with nervous anticipation. Because the adrenaline running through her body was undoubtedly from her maker.

And Clone B, in her final moments as Sakura slumped into unconsciousness into the man's arms, settled the genjutsu strengthening the image of Sasuke's pale face, cradled into the woman's arms.

The woman hardly noticed the tuft of pink hair flickered momentarily before it morphed into black. She hardly noticed the slightly distorted air around her as she disappeared as she came, stepping over the fallen trees.

Clone B then reached for the lighting spark as the woman retreated from the area.

She lit them up with her last gasp. And Clone B vanished with a puff of petals, littering the ground, leaving nothing but a catatonic Naruto.

And this is how Uchiha Shisui found him.

* * *

A little while away, Clone A brought up the lighter, and let it spark before letting it go. It careened into the night air.

Letting out a smile, she leaned back, spitting out the squirming centipede in her mouth and vanished, flickering away from Konoha's forest of death.

And that's how Itachi Uchiha, one of the overseers of the exam found his brother.

And the pain was unbearable, Sakura choked and moaned with every wave. It rendered her unconscious.

The Sannin retreated from Konoha into the forests, past all the dead guards, under the cold red moon. Kabuto close behind him. He had to move fast, before the Fourth Hokage could act.

"Good work." He nodded at the spectacled boy fell into step with him as they smoothly made their way past the slumped guards.

And Kabuto smiled smugly as they bolted away from the village, he looked over his shoulder. Before something caught onto his leg, something sharp sunk in.

And the Sannin stopped, watching as Kabuto ripped out the kunai from his tight.

"Hello, Anko-chan." Orochimaru smiled pleasantly, as if he'd just met a friend, and not at all cradling a body within his grasp.

Anko growled at him, "Give the boy back, he ain't meant for your stinkin' _experiments,_ you sniveling snake!"

The years of pain were crackling in her throat. But Orochimaru only smiled wider. He could see it in her face, bared, clenched teeth.

"You shouldn't get angry like that Anko-chan." He grinned at her, using that same nickname that brought her nightmares, "It's awful for your face."

And it was all just so nostalgic and disgusting for her. She caught hold onto her curse-seal tucked beneath the stiff upper-necked collar of the Jounin jacket.

"Whadya want with him?" Anko repeated, her voice firm. She slid out her tanto blade out of its casing.

Orochimaru brought the child's unconscious face upward to his own, tracing the fine curves of her cheek and her pink hair with a single finger. But neither of them could see it.

"Because you are going to die, Anko-chan. I'll humour you." He said. He pulled open a lid of her eyes, revealing a green, dazed iris, blackness taking over her sclera.

"I would like the revered sharingan, and I would only like the _best_ of the _best_." He enunciates the word best, "What better sacrifice than the main-household's Uchiha clan-head's son."

And Anko feels throbbing anger rifle through her system.

Not good enough. Nothing was ever good enough for the Sannin. Not even the position of being a _Sannin_. Not even her. That's why he _left_ her, to fend for _herself_ amongst the suspicious stares sent in her direction.

And it hurt like _hell_ for long years. Long nights alone, trying to tell herself that she _wasn't_ going to be him. She _wasn't_ going to be the way he was with her. She _wasn't_ going to be fuckin' insane.

Her curse seal, throbbed- the remainder of that single fight all those years ago.

And one moment she was still, shaking and the next moment she was in front of him ready to slice off his head.

That's when Kabuto interfered. He brought up a _green,_ glowing scalpel up to her neck and a glowing hand to her chest, over her pounding heart, threatening to escape from her ribcage.

"Not one move, and I'll detach all your arteries," the spectacled boy hissed at her. Anko shifted her attention in her craze towards him. The two apprentices of the Sannin, eyes narrowed into slits, ready to lunge forward and _bite_.

Orochimaru shifted the weight of the body in his hands with some boredom.

" _Move_." She gritted her teeth.

"Kabuto," Orochimaru called out coolly, "Put her down. Kill her. We should be going. _Show_ me what you can do." There was a gleam in Kabuto's eye.

And Anko let out a cry of pain before someone shushined into view.

Obito appeared in front of Kabuto, eyes blazing with pinwheels. His elbow was caught between his neck and collarbone. He pushed the spectacled boy off.

"Get your filthy hands off my student!" He roared, lunging forward for the Sannin. Anko sat up, breathing hard, coughing blood out from her throat as she brought the tanto up to meet Kabuto's scalpel.

The squirming weight in Orochimaru's arms gave out a cry of pain, making him stop in his steps.

And Obito's sharingan eyes flickered to it as he stopped, they widened in surprise. The sharingan blazing over the form of Sakura.

"This is getting annoying," Orochimaru called out through the expanse, "I don't have time to play with you all."

He snapped his fingers.

Obito snapped his neck up. Before something rammed into his face, he narrowed his eyes at the sound-nin, who interfered.

And that's when the several sound-nins emerged into the forest clearing, rustling through the trees. And Obito found himself _busy_ as he fought off the distraction. Blood slicing his cheek, he reeled around as he crushed one of them- and then another.

And when they all fell, he felt himself drop to his knees in fatigue, sparing Anko a glance behind him who was heaving on the ground, still clutching at her neck.

He looked in the direction in which they had left. Picking himself up to follow. He looked around wildly, eyes blazing with anger, trying to gauge any sort of trail.

Kabuto and Orochimaru were gone. And so was she.

* * *

The light was holy, bright, and everything felt so woozy.

It was a world between worlds.

That's when she found herself suspended above a sea of flowers, all floating atop the dark _still_ surface. Her body felt light, worn out and exhausted.

Hands broke through the surface of water.

They landed on her throat- fingering the seal. The other one closed itself over her mouth. And Sakura's eyes widened as she was slowly being dragged towards the _still_ surface.

There was another wave of pain but Sakura was tired, too tired to scream out. She was too tired to fight back.

So she allowed herself to be dragged under, past the daisies and the shifting waters, claiming her.

"I told you, little Sakura-chan." There was an eerie voice filling her ear.

She allowed herself to be pulled. Gasping as she was dragged underneath the surface- the light sky shining above her, blue skies growing murky as she was dragged under, hands still around her throat, squeezing the air around her pipes.

But the choking sensation was soon replaced with suffocation as she slowly slunk under the surface.

"I'll take this body if you lose your mind."

* * *

 _Present_

Hours later the genjutsu finally wore off- and nevertheless to say, Orochimaru wasn't pleased. But at the same time…he was sort of intrigued with the little pink-thing with gleaming green eyes.

He strengthened the power of the seal onto her, causing it to envelope her petite body.

Kabuto was swearing behind him.

They were in the hidden sound-base hidden a little off from the border of fire-country, hidden under the leaves.

Sakura's composure was calm, power ripping through her body as she brought it under control.

But her control was holding her onto the foreign, invasive chakra, not allowing it up through the pathways of her brain, halting it in position. As if- no _further_.

And then with utterly perfect control, she managed to master the gargantuan amount of chakra flooding her system. She felt her hands being bound together with braces. She unclenched and clenched her fists.

But then again, death didn't feel so bad- because this Sakura was not afraid of anything.

 _Anything_.

She looked up at him calmly.

"If I'm not impressed that a little brat with nothing special, managed to master control over the curse-seal within a few mere moments, I would be lying." He said.

And she saw the golden eyes that held her frozen into position.

She saw him for what he really was, clammy, white and not at all like the beautiful appearance of the woman that he had sported.

The stare was frightening. But there was still no fear. She felt nothing.

There were foggy voices in her head, of her old team-mates and friends. But it felt odd, and she struggled to place them.

"Shut up," she whispered.

"The only two people who've managed to master the curse-seal and not _die_." He says, breaking her out of her own thoughts, "Have been you and Anko-chan, a pity about the latter - she possessed nothing but hatred for me, lacking any sort of motivation."

He scoffed. "Unfortunately, she too, didn't have what I wanted. So my eyes fell on the Uchiha team-mate of yours."

He pauses to take in her reaction. She gives him nothing but a blank stare.

Kabuto watched on, with raised eyebrows, arms folded over his chest. The dim lights of the base contorting his face as he listens with intrepid attention.

"That seal that you possess was meant to brainwash him into my purposes." He stretched out his arms, examining his white forearms- they gleam against the dull light of the sound-base, "Can you imagine the strength of having one of the stronger blooded Uchiha in my command?"

The seal sears again and she winces ever so slightly.

Somehow, the folds of her mind are holding the pain in place.

"But unfortunately that was ruined by you." He says sighing, laying a palm over his forehead as he lay back into the chair as if he was bearing the weight of the world. He slides his palm and looks at her from the corner of his eyes.

And the seal writhes again, and the pain jolts this time-signals reaching her brain, she lets out a scream.

And he simply watches as she froths, screaming and jerking up her and kicking around.

She brings it under control again, panting and looking up at him, with steadying green orbs. He smiles to himself. He could always have an Uchiha.

But this little kitten was just so interesting.

He breaks her again.

* * *

She's not entirely sure how much time has passed between them- but it feels like an awful long time. They shackle her wrists and she's within a dark, dank cold jail-cell, smelling the blood vividly.

Some of it wasn't her own.

And between moments of torture and the conversation, and any sort of conversation. He pops a piece of meat into his mouth, chewing slowly as he talks to her.

"Are you expecting to be saved? Do you think they'll come out rushing for you- just because wee little princess Sakura is in danger?"

And she thinks about it as Kabuto snaps one of her fingers and mend it again.

And the small part of her mind whines, literally whines, "That's not true. They'll come for you. Obito-sensei promised."

"You shut up." She snaps at it. And it's silent again.

Between moments like this, moments of brief respite.

She slips into unconsciousness.

And the garden in which she is in, is much like her mother's garden, well-roses, chrysanthemums and a single Sakura tree. Under the Sakura-tree is a table, a table full of tea-time things. Delicious tea-things.

Sakura hums and dangles her legs as she brings the cup to her mouth. She smiles at the person across the table.

"More tea for you, Kuma-tan?"

"No thank you, Sakura-hime."

She remembers bright cerulean eyes- but she doesn't know _why_ she feels the twinge of sadness. The names fox and red come to her. And then again, the voice in her mind tells her.

"They do have a reason to save you, they like you." The bear tells her, over the table, over his cup of tea as he brings it up to his mouth. Kuma-tan smacks his stitched lips as his front darkens and the liquid drips over his body, and over the frayed blue ribbon.

He then brings up the cookie to his cloth mouth and breaks it, crumbs spilling everywhere.

"Where are they now?" Sakura tells him, "What do they know? No one cares in the end. Only you, just you Kuma-tan."

Because Kuma-tan was there for her in the beginning and till the end.

"Father cared for you." He tells her.

And yes, he did care for her.

He would come home late from work, disheveled as he held a bag of candy between his fingers, happy smile on his face. But even back then they didn't have much.

"Sakura-chan," he calls out softly, "I brought candy for you."

She pushes a lock of pink hair behind her ear as she sips her tea.

"But he's dead." She replies.

He brings another cookie to his mouth and smashes it. The crumbs catch against his matted fur, the little stretched out ribbon, frayed at the end. And the cookie bits fall to the ground as he smacks his mouth together. The button holes of his empty eyes looking back at her.

"Mother cared for you."

The memories are vague now, and suddenly perhaps it was a surge of his sadistic chakra mingled with her brain, the seal pulsates.

And she thinks back to the time, remembering the vivid wedding band hanging off her fingers and the haunted, dull look in her eyes. Mebuki Haruno never wore her wedding band in the market places, when she went out shopping with her friends- dragging little Sakura-chan along.

Her eyes were mirthful, with a hint of lust as she spoke to the apple merchant, who smiled back appreciatively at her. There were always extra apples at home. And for that matter, there was never a lack of food either.

She was always a burst of sunshine. Having conversation, the life of the party.

But her eyes were also always so…dull, when she came home.

The realization is jarring.

" _Mebuki! You have to be strong for Sakura-chan!"_

Was she? And the tea-cup in her hands cracks, the liquid flowing down on the table, darkening against the pristine fabric. And the stains began to form images, words and patterns.

Kuma-tan puts his cup down and watches as well.

The tea-stain morphs into a well-defined noose.

"No, no she didn't." She says, surrounded with nothing but Kuma-tan and Kuma-tan alone. Her voice breaks, "She didn't."

Kuma-tan looks at her questioningly.

The mindscape began to fill with rain, pouring down over the cups sloshing over the biscuits and all the cakes that were prepared for the occasion. Water, marring the frosting and the bits of smiley-face decoration over the cupcakes.

There was nothing beautiful in this world.

* * *

Sakura fingers the fabric of her velvet black dress, as the events play out before her. Because Mebuki Haruno was beautiful, she was a beautiful woman. But she married poor.

"Make friends with all the pretty girls. Make friends with all the pretty, rich girls!" She told her, as she deftly pulled the little pink dress over her head, slipping the ribbon sleeves over her shoulders and gently sliding her fingers through her hair, clipping the locks of hair up.

And her eyes would always slide over her husband's arms at the other man in the corner- who was watching the proceedings before him. He looks back to her, eyes dazzling with promises of riches.

Beside her little Sakura-chan thinks her mother is the prettiest woman in the entire party as she smiles back, stretching her soft red lips into a smile, fluttering her lashes coyly.

Just like a prim and proper lady.

Kuma-tan continues sitting there, waiting for her to continue. It's so cold, it's so cold and _wet_.

"No," she repeats, "She didn't care." Still staring down at the cloth with cold hard eyes, as the raindrops form tear-tracks against her taut cheeks.

And her mother's ideals no longer belonged in this ugly world.

And the walls sometimes spoke back to her.

"I'm impressed,"

She noted the scratches on the ground below her, a single rusted nail rolled around after she dropped it, adding another scratch. The cell was devoid of light and her eyes were baggy and tired.

"Very impressed, Sakura- _chan_. You've managed to hold up _so_ well under this."

She just brought up her green eyes towards his golden ones, devoid of anything. She feels him clip her arms and chakra rushes forward to the tips of her fingers. But she doesn't do anything. She just lays still there, staring at them. Clenching and unclenching them.

"At this point, Konoha doesn't seem too interested in finding you, even though I did think about sending a bargain, you for an Uchiha."

He dropped down her headband, scratched frayed thing, metal plate still glinting in the dim flickering light. Off and on, off and on.

He crouched down, "It was probably a stupid idea. You aren't worth much to start with."

Orochimaru continues talking. He really likes the sound of his own voice as it fills the torture chamber of the lone sound-base.

"Since you possess my beloved cursed-seal of course, I have decided to _personally_ oversee you. After all, you do nothing but take up space in my beloved chambers. I have limited funds, you know?"

"Hm…after some thinking, and then some, I've taken quite a liking to you, kitten," He continues again, "How would you like to be my newest pupil?"

She doesn't respond. She doesn't react?

"What's the matter? Something got your tongue?" He asks her, chuckling.

He hums and walks up to her tilting her chin up to his eyes, so he can watch her. He then places a finger down her throat and pulls out a squirming centipede, flicking it away.

"Now let's try this again," He tells her, "How would you like to be part of my new bodyguard crew?"

And she looks up at him, unflinching, but there's really nothing left in there anyways.

"What are my options?" She asks him.

He sighs lazily, "Death. I'll allow you to pick out your kind of death."

And Sakura considers it for a second before responding.

"Okay. I'll be your body-guard."

As Orochimaru leaves her cell, he hears her singing softly to herself, "Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday dear Sakura."

It had been almost a year since she was abducted.

"Happy Birthday to me."

"Spring-child, huh," Orochimaru raised an eyebrow thoughtfully.

* * *

 _A/N: Just some notes: See, Sasuke in non-massacre AU possesses no sort of drive. But think about it, the forest of death is the perfect place to just sort of abduct him, brainwash him, wear his skin._

 _And I may or may not have 'fixed' the purpose of the curse-seal. Basically how it works, would be like: Orochimaru's chakra invades the body and sort of muddles up your intentions- much like the way genjutsu works- twisting around the chemicals in your brain. So in a way, it sort of works like the Hyuuga's Caged bird seal and I'm taking full creative liberties with it._

 _I think Sasuke in this AU would have been brainwashed into Orochimaru's purpose, broken his mind, he only needed the shell of the body anyways. Sakura on the other hand- has a fragmented mind. There's inner and outer. When Sakura relapses, she goes into Inner mode. So she's two different people at the same time. One of them bears the psychological trauma and all the hurt- the other puts up appearances for Konoha, the 'good' romantic side- aka sweet little Sakura-chan._

 _And they've switched._

 _Fun stuff._

 _Also, yes I haven't written out a lot of fight-scenes aka ninja special attacks. But they weren't really any fight-scenes, to be honest. This was supposed to be more Sakura-focused, but that specific scene between Obito and Orochimaru was supposed to sort of be fodder for a Konoha focused chapter._

 _Kushina still houses the Kyuubi, because can you think of any reason as to why she would let her son deal with it? In a world where she's alive? Besides I'm fairly certain any jinchuuriki, being Uzumaki or not will die if the Kyuubi is ripped out from him. That's what happened to Mito but then again she was old._

 _But then again, I'm not playing any favourites here because like I've said before, this was supposed to be wholly Sakura-centric and sort of three-shot. A sort of drabbelesque rendition of how life would be for her- taking bits and pieces of Sasuke, Naruto and Kakashi's paths. That was the original idea anyways._

 _Sakura's birthday is March 28th. The Chuunin exams were in July-August._

 _I hope I've portrayed that well lol, if not I guess future chapters will elaborate on it. Questions? Thoughts? Reviews? I hope I've also sort of written out the flashback scenes more clearly in this chapter. It's more a manner of aesthetics that I don't use break-lines- I sort of want it to flow. But thank you for that feedback!_


	4. Chapter 4

**I own nothing.**

 **Edit 13th December:** I've just been cleaning out sentences. I feel like some of them aren't actually communicating Sakura's character properly, or even 'psychological' elements. So if anyone doesn't feel like reading these chapters, that's fine. Future chapters will also recap on whatever you miss.

Thanks for sticking with me.

* * *

"Why don't we start by letting out our feelings, little by little?"

There is the sound of a pen against a paper.

"Do you think they think about us sometimes?"

"But what's the point of thinking about it this way? This is about us."

"Yes, what is the point of anything you do?"

"You just care about what they all think. You always do that."

"And no one cares about the ugly, useless ones."

"You could marry a rich man if we were pretty. It could have been loveless, but who cares."

"And we could have had diamonds as big as our hands."

"Yes, diamonds as big as our hands. Flesh, blood, bones and _beautiful_ , just like _her_. "

"We're just ugly. People are just fickle and flimsy."

"Wouldn't we watch them burn then? A world like this doesn't deserve to exist."

"Kill them all. Kill them all."

There was a clatter of pens falling.

"No no no…I c-can't think like that, we can't just take lives and _toy_ with them. We're not _him._ People have their lives, emotions, feelings. We're not just-"

"Does it hurt?"

"It doesn't hurt…"

"Does it _hurt_ , forehead?"

"N-no it _doesn't hurt_."

"Do you want to forget?"

"I w-want to _forget_!"

* * *

At the first glimpse of sunlight, Sakura blinked and pulled her hood over her head. She tugged it over her eyes. The blinding light hurt.

"Ahhh the smell of fresh-air…" He let out a sigh of happiness as he waved his hands in front of his nose, taking in fresh breaths.

"Doesn't it feel great, Sakura?"

She stared at him. He really didn't bother waiting for her response and proceeded lightly down the path. A skip in his step.

Sakura sniffed at the air tentatively.

The smell of fresh air after being in the dank, dark and cold smell was rather giddy to her sense. Being outside was rather overwhelming. She pulled at the straps of her bag and followed him steadily.

But traveling to the main sound-base was also a lot of work. He told her that she would start her training soon, it had been roughly a week since she had been allowed to roam free.

He was nonchalant, and Sakura was allowed to feel the chakra return to her fingers. He liked watching her as she clenched and unclenched her fists.

Sakura noted that there was a reason that he was letting her free like this, because she never reacted.

She never fought back.

During their moments traveling, they had to take lesser paths. They ran into several bandits in some of the more straggly parts of the unnamed country,(all she knew was that there were several rice-fields).

"This is perfect time for a lesson," Orochimaru crooned. He was holding onto one of the squirming bandits who had assaulted them.

And the man kicked and clutched at the Sannin's grip - his rather _long_ white fingers around his throat- attempting to pry them off.

He was screaming profanities on top of his throat much like a writhing insect.

Sakura watched him choke the life out of the man before turning to the other bandit who brought down a rather _large_ axe through his body.

And as the blade slid mid-way through his phantom torso, Sakura watched with sickened breath as he flickered his golden eye toward her.

He brought his hand up to perform a hand-seal, demonstrating for her.

"This is what I call, Hiding in the Surface Technique. Allows you to dematerialize through people and objects - rather useful."

And Sakura watched with really wide eyes as he phased through the axe only to appear behind the rather surprised bandit.

"W-wait w-what the-?"

The man whipped around only to meet the Sannin's icy stare.

His body locked up, shoulders stiffening and the axe clattered to the ground rather noisily.

"And this is how to temporarily paralyze your victim, a very effective solution to rather squirmy targets."

Blood splattered over her chin during the next few moments.

The Sannin grinned at her as he propped his hands on either side of his waist, "Get all that? Sa-ku-ra-chan?"

And without waiting for her answer, he phased into the ground. The one with an eye-patch over his eye paused where the Sannin had phased. He twisted his head left, then right.

He looked down at the pinkette who was staring at him.

"What the heck? Why are you here little girl?"

Sakura pulled out a sharpened kunai, and moved her sore achy limbs. She brought together her fingers, and feeling the chakra surge through her weakened system.

* * *

And they traveled like that, occasionally phasing through the walls, avoiding company. He was rather chatty, and Sakura hardly listened most of the time. She was far too busy rubbing the blood off her clothes with her rather raw fingernails.

It looked like an ordinary village, nothing on the surface. But there were bars strewn around, and several low-profile individuals sipping on cups of liquor, wondering what a fragile looking girl with nothing but shocking pink hair-poking out of the tufts of a traveling hood, was doing with one of the legendary Saanin and the Otokage.

"Otokage-sama…" They murmured as Orochimaru passed by. Sakura noted that he was rather charming, eloquent and rather cheerful in his demeanor, all things considered.

His teeth glinted as he greeted each one of them in turn.

"And how do you do?" He smiled at the scruffy looking child within his mother's grasp. He raised his spindly _white_ hands up to the boy's cheeks.

He washed up very well. He had sanitized and cleant out his fingernails. There was no blood underneath them like her own.

She found herself oddly fascinated as he moved from person to person, greeting them. What a socialist. Even back then, whenever he came to _visit_ her.

"Oh Sakura-chan," He would tell her, the steps of his feet echoing through the chamber as he pranced around, "Do you want to know of what I did today?"

His choice of words made peeling skin sound romantic. Like he was merely addressing the softness of a lover's lips or perhaps the rosiness of her blood.

Then he'd bring his fingers down to heal the cut he made and then go on to eat her abandoned dinner, chatting on about how he was out of this chemical and then something else.

But the thing about the Otogakure was that it was well-hidden. It wasn't hidden trees or other grand structures propped by the old Hokages. Not hidden by the forests created by the first Hokage.

No, it was hidden by the people.

Everyone had a few skeletons in their closets. Everyone was bound to the wretched village, perhaps by the wretched blood that ran through their veins or the demons of their past.

Everyone was dirty, tainted.

"Ahh…that's very fascinating," Orochimaru rubbed his chin as he indulged the man in front of him.

He then turned to talk to another, lightly dabbing the ends of his dry eyes with a dark murky rag as the woman cried about her husband.

"I promise to try and look into it." He said as he pulled his hand out of her grasp. His smile never reached his eyes.

Perhaps a good hour later of this, Sakura followed him down a rather long winding road and then through some kind of underground path toward the underground sound-base

At first glance, it was a large underground lab with many, many rooms down hallways and pathways. He left her to her own devices in a rather large room.

The clock was ticking unnervingly in the background. _Tick tock tick tock._ She eventually got bored of waiting around obediently. Stroking his snake as a companion, Sakura trotted through the underground passages.

Each room was different compared to the other. In some, she liked counting the bars and in the others she liked the cool feel of the floor on her face. Some cellars had pipes for walls- others were far more spacious.

Some of them were large, some of them were colder than others. Either ways, they all smelled like chemicals and dead cadavers, blood-stains and screams that made you stay up in the middle of the night.

Kuma-tan would also keep her company, trotting along-side, holding onto a rather large cookie jar.

"Do you think they will have tempura for dinner?" He asked as he smacked his lips around a cookie, "I'm starving, we haven't had that in a while."

One of the stitches began to rip, coming loose.

Sakura usually responded to one of his inane questions with more inane questions:

"Kuma-tan, did you hear the scream from the other end? Do you think they snapped his ankle or his fingers?"

And Orochimaru's snake companion sent her a curious unblinking stare as it slithered over her neck again to make itself more comfortable.

* * *

Over the next few months, Sakura started to get used to her new life at the Sound base and adjusted to her life as Orochimaru's apprentice.

Not that it was a particularly easy task because the Sannin was a rather busy individual, all things considered. Sakura considered it a feat that he would even bother visiting her over the year in her dark, dank, cold cellar. In retrospect, she often wondered why he found her so _fascinating_.

At first glance, it was probably the seal on her neck. That's what he had told her too.

"Do you know why you are such an interesting case?" He referred to her like a patient, like a particularly wriggly experimental mouse - meant to be observed under fluorescent lights. And he'd throw questions like that in the air, unanswered.

She never responded, she just sat really still.

Because if she gave him an indication of _anything_ \- of being afraid, he would like it. She didn't have to scream, don't react. Don't react. Don't react.

But Orochimaru was interested in the patch of skin on her neck and her reaction to it.

And he would poke and prod around the seal, tapping it and asking her if she felt anything.

And often, her curse-seal throbbed with every tap of his pen, his eyes gleamed and she thought she felt his chakra signature flare.

And Orochimaru had this really swirly chair. He spun round and round.

"Do you feel any itchiness?" He asked her, while the seal seared with pain. Sakura usually dignified him with long elaborate responses from medical textbooks that probably symptomatic of baby skin rash.

Nevertheless, he'd scribble it down, "Interesting, interesting."

He had a flair for the dramatic - he always did.

So single word answers such as, "It hurts", would probably prompt responses like, "How does it hurt?" or "Does it hurt like I stabbed you with a fork or does it hurt like a thousand pin-pricks all concentrated finely on that one spot?"

And if she didn't respond immediately, he demonstrated it for her.

Perhaps a bloody fork later, and finding herself strapped to the bed-side, hair falling over her eyes. She watched him scribble with earnest, humming under his breath.

And she felt her vision in her right eye flare up as it got extremely sharp, momentarily. And then the room dulled again. Her fists were clenched – as if she _wanted_ to fight back.

He spun his chair around momentarily and she let her hand go limp.

'…the patient exhibits a tremendous amount of stress on her right eye…"

Good ninjas always look underneath the underneath the underneath.

* * *

And he kept a lot of prisoners and _a lot_ of shinobi under his command. Sometimes she found herself wondering, where and _how_. Dinner was brought to her on a trays by rather quiet women who shakily placed it next to her.

And she hardly spoke to her, rather she spoke to the floor.

"We were informed by Orochimaru-sama to bring you your nutrients," she informed the girl in a quiet tone as she handed her a pair of clothes.

Sakura was still trying to get used to the feel of the bed. The elevation felt weird to her senses so she sat up. She looked up at the lady.

"Can I have a futon, please?"

The lady nodded, gazing down at the girl's feet.

And Sakura sat up staring at the plate of noodle soup and vegetables, with a side of meat. She picked up the packet, the packaged packet of pepper and ripped the opening, sprinkling it over her dinner.

And by the time she was done with her dinner, she lay down on her futon, staring at the ceiling. Mouth wide open.

There was a twitch of movement to her right.

She brought up her senbon, twirling it around her slender, long fingers as she watched the spider skitter up the walls, eight long legs dart up and over the cracks. She drew her wrist back, and flicked the instrument.

Pinning it square into the wall. It's skittering stopped as did its squirming.

She then turned over and tried to get some sleep.

* * *

"Tell me a good memory."

"What do you want to listen to?"

"Tell us about the time we got scored the highest in the class."

"Back when little Sakura-chan was nothing but a kunoichi-in-training, Iruka-sensei was so proud of us he especially read her work out loud. You see, she wrote a lovely essay about the will of fire."

"What was it about?"

"About how protecting fellow shinobi was the central focus of the shinobi code, we stand arm-in-arm-"

"That sounds incredibly honorable."

"And love is the key to all, the key to a better world-"

"How heroic, how beautiful, how quaint."

There was some snickering.

"Love is the means, the solution, the solution of the shinobi fall-"

"Did we get graded with a red pen or a blue pen? I think he wrote an extra reference to further reading? He had really loopy, scrawly hand-writing."

"I think it was pink, he drew a couple of hearts too."

There was a rustle of pages and some silence.

"And now?"

"What now?"

"I wonder if he framed that report in gold for us, a passionate example of the best of the best of the best paper-ninja for future generations."

"Only the finest of the finest of the finest, the clothing made of silk, laced in gold-"

"And children will be asking about us- sweet, innocent, and naïve. Little children who stab themselves on their own kunais and rub their runny noses off on their sleeves. They said, 'Please, do tell of what happened to her, Iruka-sensei?' and he would be gladly telling them the story about how you sacrificed your life and sanity for the sake of a team-mate's. Glory of glor-"

"All-hail the high-queen, the one and only, the one who rules the kingdom of the magical kingdom. She slices off the heads of her enemies who dare defy her-"

"Oh we would be one of the many, many heroes, they would remember us till another slaughter, another sacrifice. We're only deserving of this much, aren't we?"

"Only of this much."

* * *

All body-guards required _training_. And according to Orochimaru - Konoha's peace-loving training and ways didn't cut it out for her. Didn't prepare her for the _real_ world. Orochimaru was a rather chatty teacher, he rambled on about people with doujutsu and famed swords. Most of the time, Sakura realized, he wasn't really talking _to_ her but rather at her.

"I believe I am in need of a new vessel, do you know what I'm saying, Sakura-chan?"

He snapped the twig under his slender fingers, over her ears, breaking her concentration during the chakra manipulation exercise.

She had no figurative, or metaphorical idea of what he was saying, but then again- she _really_ didn't care.

So Sakura learned to just tune him out - which was possibly a skill in and of itself.

She usually just pretended he was the sound of pipes in the background. And his rather sharp fingernails which dug into her skin was just an uncomfortable itch.

There was Uchiha-this and Uchiha-that. And sometimes he talked about Konoha-this and Konoha-that. And Tsunade-this and Jiraiya-that. And sometimes he talked about Hokage-this and Hokage- _that_.

Perhaps the only upgrade to being his newest 'body-guard-in-training' over the next three months, was training, her duties around the base and her new snake friend, who she had acquired by means of feeding him.

And food that did not possibly include poison.

"He's horrible, you know," she told the Snake who she had named Shiro-chan, because he was so _white_.

And the snake simply stared back at her.

"I know," she agreed, rolling on her back, "But he likes _Icha Icha Paradise_ , no one who likes that junk can ever be that good."

Sakura sighed mournfully.

She also learned a few valuable tools for training under the Saanin. Because training under them required a preparation in and of itself.

And experience was a hell of better teacher than he would _ever_ be.

Having Orochimaru and Kabuto as teachers can only be described as stabbing yourself repeatedly and asking yourself whether pain was only part of your imagination.

And Kabuto did just that.

"Woops, my hand slipped," He said as he moved his scalpel over her arm with steady hands, "Looks like we have a rather deep cut, Sakura-chan, this is the perfect time to practice medical ninjutsu!"

He clasped his hands together and grinned at her with a hint of what could only be described as looking at yesterday's bag of trash.

And he made heal her own broken bones as well. Medical ninjutsu wasn't easy.

Mending together the ripped cartilage while you were the one whose cartilage was …ripped and retaining concentration through the pain…was not easy.

She mostly figured it all out with this-goes-here and that-goes-there. Sakura also learned a lot about anatomy from some useless medical textbooks that she had managed to procure from him.

The feel of reading material under her fingers made her feel excited, nevertheless.

And Sakura literally devoured the book about human anatomy, and then he dumped the second volume into her hands.

"Sakura-chan," He sighed, "I'm afraid you aren't really meeting my expectations."

He pushed back his smug spectacles onto the bridge of his tart nose, which was practically begging her to smash it.

Then he made her write long papers, essays on cell regeneration. Boring stuff that made you nod off, but for a paper-ninja, it was nothing but gold. Getting the citations right was probably the most cumbersome part for Sakura - always give credit where it was due.

And Kabuto brought the paper up to his nose, inspecting it closely, reading it and re-reading it.

Shaking his head, he sighed, "This is not creative enough. This is sub-par. Atrocious, insignificant, unworthy of even being read-," he squinted at the page, "-ahhhhhhhh!"

He moaned rather dramatically, pushing up his glasses as he pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration.

"My eyes burn from the utter debauchery, your grammar is painful."

And with that, he scrawled a rather neat '0%' over it.

He then made her rewrite it again.

* * *

Between training with the Sannin himself and Kabuto's medical training, Sakura often spent the evenings in her room lying down on her bed, sore and drained- she eased her muscles as she attempted to loosen them up with healing chakra.

Kabuto gave her work to help around the base, bring dinner to some people. In the course of doing this, she made a new friend. Sort of.

"I brought your dinner." She nodded at him, she set it down with a heavy thud.

He simply stared at her for a few moments. She held his stare. He had white hair, white _beaded_ hair with a zig-zaggy hair part. He also had luminous green eye and two red dots on either side of his forehead. He looked rather symmetrical.

And his eyes seemed to say, _"Why are you here?"_

And she would simply respond with, _"_ I was told to bring your dinner."

She felt uncomfortable with the way he was staring at her, so she turned her head.

Her eyes caught sight of a book-shelf. So she sat on the floor, watching him eat while she'd pull out a book from one of his shelves.

There was a clatter of chopsticks and she looked up.

"What _?"_

" _Don't touch my books,"_ He seemed to say. Sakura huffed as she pushed the book back into the shelf, he watched her again with narrowed eyes.

She rolled her eyes, "Okay, bye." She shoved the book into the shelf.

He stared after as she left the room.

She didn't really know that he actually really just wanted her to know that she was the reading the sequel, not the prequel.

"You know," she drawled conversationally, dangling the wriggly mouse over Shiro-chan. He stared at her with beady eyes before lurching upwards to snap onto it. She watched the mouse being swallowed down his throat as she propped herself on her arms, "He told me today that my test-date for being his body-guard is coming soon."

And the snake stared back at her as he laid his head down, listening to her woes.

"Do you think I'll pass?"

She was only met with the dull sound of her ringing ears.

* * *

The spot-light shone over her eyes as she squinted into the rather large training stadium. There were caged walls, barring her in.

She was _quite_ certain he'd drugged her. But then again, she oddly wondered if the Sannin was just going senile or was just playing mind-games with her.

Because it's not like she wasn't immune to most of the poisons already.

So raising an eyebrow, she stared at the boy opposite her, a little way from her. He looked oddly spaced out, staring at her with bewilderment. He was chubby looking and he was dressed like Orochimaru. Sakura wondered when she would have to forfeit her make-shift jailor clothing to look like the Sannin.

Shame, the dull teal-blue pants were starting to grow on her.

Shrugging to herself, Sakura resorted to break the uncomfortable silence.

"Ano..." she called out, "I'm not entirely sure what we are supposed to be doing here."

No response.

Well that was just rude, she thought, twirling a kunai around her ring-finger.

Then the thought occurred to her.

Stadium. Kunai. And a rather enthusiastic Orochimaru.

Test.

Sakura spun the kunai counter-clockwise, changing her direction of thought as she examined the boy in front of her more closely. Short-statures, well-built arms- _eight_ arms, pony-tail and a sound-forehead protector. She tilted her head, he looked really familiar.

The pony-tail felt oddly familiar to her. She snapped herself back into concentration as she examined all the potential scenarios that she could apply to the situation.

No, that wouldn't work. She just needed to react.

She continued to study his profile just like he was doing to her.

"Hello," she smiled at him politely, "My name is Haruno Sakura."

And the boy literally scoffed.

"You've got to be kidding me," He snickered, "I'm fighting some no-name girl. Me? Kidōmaru? Why don't you run off home and play with your dolls?"

He snickered at his little joke. Raising up a set of hands in defeat and chuckling as another set of arms propped themselves on his waist.

She idly assumed that this was what it was meant as trash-talking.

" _Yeah, teme! I'm going to wipe the floor with your face!"_

" _Bring it, idiot, I don't think you could be able to spare a single blow on me."_

And that's when she realized that something had impaled her left side.

"What the?" He asked incredulously, "Out of the game already?" He drew out the bloody golden pipe from her side and she forced herself to stand steady. Bringing a glowing palm to his left arm, she forced her chakra through, ripping out his muscle tissue in the process. There was the sound of flesh tearing as the boy screamed.

She then attempted a swift kick in turn, knocking him back a few paces.

He let out a scream of pain, his other seven arms flailing about, catching onto his other singular-limp arm. And she took the moment to quell the wound in her side.

When he looked up, he growled at her, "Listen princess, I'm not about to lose to some no-name-no-good little girl here."

"Yeah," She said seriously, "I completely understand. I mean you are _so_ much stronger than me."

Kidomaru's eyes narrowed, he took that one as an insult.

"What did you say?!" He screeched at her rather angrily.

She felt healing chakra seep into her side and close up the wound temporarily as he went on and on about something like "I'll show you _pain_!"

It would do for now, she told herself as she brought up her kunai to eye-level, assessing him closely. With one arm out of commission- she would probably have to fight him in _close_ range.

And well, she wasn't really keen on doing that.

Taijutsu had always been one of Sakura's weak-spots. Or so that's what Orochimaru had told her rather scathingly.

"Tell me, what can a girl with no kekkai genkai or any _special_ ability use against someone who probably wouldn't even have to _move_ a finger to beat you," He asked her, one day, as he pummeled her in the stomach.

And the problem with having _eight_ arms was really this- you dodged one arm and received a well-placed blow from the other seven.

So taijutsu wasn't really in the books for her, she thought as she was attempting to protect herself from him. And as she closed in on him, feeling her sides go numb, she brought a closed fist to his face and rammed her knuckle into something… _hard._

She drew her hand back quickly- but slower as it was still throbbing from the impact. But he grabbed onto it flinging her like a rag-doll toward the other end of the stadium.

She hit the ground, _hard_.

She got up wearily, spitting out dirt.

She looked up to see the side of his face rather hardened with something, before it flaked off to the ground. The fall echoed around the stadium.

 _Metal,_ she noted.

The scene before her flickered.

And suddenly she wasn't standing in front of the boy any-more, there was a strange woman on the tree above her. The forest leaves seemed to be rustling, in the night as the moon rose above her.

Sakura looked up wearily at the dream that had been haunting her for weeks and weeks.

The woman grinned and opened her mouth, revealing a rather _long_ tongue.

Then again it didn't really matter to her right now, Sakura thought snappishly. She brought up the kunai, twirling it around her fingers.

Kidōmaru began to spit something. Sakura noted this with a raised eyebrow as his saliva began to harden.

Really, _what_ could a girl with no kekkai genkai do against someone who was by-far, superior than her in taijutsu and had this gold-whats-it-thingy-dripping from his body.

The boy started to laugh raucously, she noted with some dry enthusiasm that he seemed confident as he twirled around the sword in his arm.

"It's game _over_ , pinky." He screeched at her.

Sakura sighed.

She brought her hands up together.

* * *

"Kill or be killed."

"Animals in training, animals in training."

"All of them lining up, stand up, stand up, greet your teacher. Look at all of you, adorable little things, ready to fight for the glory of our village."

"Open your books. Oh look at the beautiful performance from Sasuke-kun! As expected from the greatest clan of the mighty Konohagakure no sato!"

"Attention attention attention!"

"Kill kill kill kill kill kill."

* * *

The temperature had dropped a bit.

He vaguely noted this at the back of his mind as he rubbed his shivering arms.

Kidōmaru sat back on his seat as he looked down, eyes gleaming through the dark, his hands propped on his knees. He yawned wide and then leaned back as he watched his clone pummel the girl over and over.

Man.

He didn't even need to activate the cursed seal for the brat. He wondered why this girl had gotten Orochimaru's attention.

He assessed her vitals again, as if hardly daring to believe that this was the _same_ girl who piqued his attention _and_ had been rumored to have halted Orochimaru-sama's plans.

What with again? He wondered. There had been some talk, but never openly.

He liked being the spider-web, listening to _all_ the gossip about the way people functioned.

Perhaps all, and everything that came to his fourteen year old mind about the opposite sex idly entertained his mind. Kidōmaru decided it really didn't matter. His attention was then brought to the scene in front of him. She was weak anyways, filth. She disgusted him.

The girl had disappeared.

That's a first, he thought, as he kicked off the seat, hauling himself over the edge of the stadium, and gazing around.

There was a flash of _pink_ in his peripheral. Fast, he thought, but _not_ fast enough.

He grinned, and shot forward his web at her, this time pinning her against the high-backed walls of the stadium, with the golden arrow.

She let out a slight 'oof'.

And glaring up at him for a few minutes as he finally decided to end it, he brought the knife up to her throat before realizing something.

The temperature dropped again.

He quickly brought his hands up in a cross, dispelling the genjutsu.

The room began to clear.

And she was standing there, unmarred, unshaken. She was just casually observing him as if he was a particularly interesting kind of artifact. He widened his eyes before laughing.

"Nice try, pinky," He grinned at her, "But you'll need more than genjutsu and _trickery_ to defeat me."

"Oh I don't doubt that," she nodded her head, there was a glint in her eye as she regarded him.

He then noted that there was a single _tagged kunai_ between his feet. He skittered backwards.

But the kunai was just there, _eerily_ between the two of them- not really going off. He looked up at her, and she was gone again.

He closed his eyes, trying to feel around the rather stadium, and he felt web after web set off. He wondered if she was stupid. None of them could be broken apart by _normal_ tools. And what exactly was she doing. He opened them and began to form a bow.

He spun around and spat forth a web, once again narrowly missing her.

No, he decided, unmoving, something was off.

The girl danced around for a few seconds smiling at him. She moved gracefully, jumping from seat to seat in the large stadium as she set off more webs. And he shot more webs, trying to catch her.

She seemed to disappear through the arrows. So he started increasing them in succession.

One arrow. Two arrow. Three at a time.

He nailed her again, hitting her in the solar plexus, mid-abdomen and a rather bloodied thigh.

"You are done for!" He yelled at her madly, laughing, darting forward as he slashed forward, "No more mind-games!"

And he was grinning madly before he realized something, again.

Suddenly the air around him began to clear, and he was stiff, unmoving, he wriggled around and realized that he was within his own webs. His hands were bound to the sides, unable to bring his hands together to _release_. His jaw was locked up in that mad grin and his tongue shrunk back into his mouth- stiff.

And she was standing in front of him, watching him intently, those eyes were sharpened. Paralyzed.

"What the-?" he shook his wrist.

And she was standing in front of him, still twirling around the kunai her ring finger.

Behind her, her clone dissipated as she jumped off the webs, covered in the substance. She smirked at him before vanishing.

It suddenly occurred to him, they were talking about this. A _genjutsu_ attacker. His mind was reeling backwards with the revelation.

And suddenly, it felt like _she_ was playing with him- all this while.

And he realized then, _he_ could control his _own_ webs. And these weren't webs, it was a simple paralysis jutsu- one which Orochimaru used.

She had tricked him.

There was a reason why the room was cold, he found himself marveling at the meticulously compiled genjutsu- tricking the mind, was essential to how the body worked. His jaw locked up before he realized that what-ever this was, _wasn't_ a genjutsu.

Tricking his body, tricking his sensations into thinking that the room was _cool_ and _dry._

When did she realize that the metal was secreted through his sweat glands?

And then he groaned, oh right, he decided to _tell_ her.

"Keeping low expectations of one's self is important in any battle," she told him, as if she was reciting something off her memory from some book or the other, "The mind can get swayed and tricked into what it desires. What you desired to see about me, is what you see- but it's different from what you _know_."

She watched him coolly and he stared at her blankly, " _Genjutsu: Mind over matter_ by Ishida Sui. Volume One."

And he was struggling to form metal shield over his throat as she brought down the kunai, toward the right end of his throat.

Her sclera had darkened, the tomoe seal-marks forming all over her body- forming one after the other. And there was a single rather flash of a red eye gazing back at his own.

"Game over," he thought weakly, he was looking up at her with wide eyes, like a pig ready for his own slaughter- before clenching them down tight.

She flicked her wrist to the right.

* * *

"It's all just so fuckin' _messed_ up."

* * *

He blinked and opened his eyes.

"That's enough."

Her wrist was being held back by a slender white one. He looked up into the eyes of his leader.

"Kimimaro-sama!" He thought, he felt her hold on his shoulders loosen up as he dropped to the ground. His arms were weakened and he felt dizzy. He breathed out and coughed at the feeling of his mouth loosening up.

Kabuto ambled into view, he clapped his hands.

"What a wonderful performance, don't you agree?"

Kidōmaru grit his teeth and didn't respond.

"You can let go of me."

And all three males turned to look at the pinkette.

"You can let go of me," she repeated and wrenched her wrist away from his grasp, "I felt you enter, you know."

"You were only supposed to incapacitate him," Kabuto informed her gleefully, "Oh Sakura-chan, we cannot lose one of Orochimaru-sama's valuable guards."

He continued on lightly, as if he was announcing the winner of a game of shogi or the menu or a restaurant.

"Congratulations, Sakura-chan, welcome to the Sound Five, or six for that matter."

She drove the kunai into the ground, inches away from his feet.

* * *

Orochimaru liked efficiency.

And splitting the 'Sound Six', into two separate teams was far more productive than making them all do all the work on the same missions. Besides, the sound-four already had a special kind of dynamic that couldn't really be reproduced. So Sakura only trained with them.

And Kidōmaru was still eying her strangely as she walked into the training grounds. She sent him a single unwavering glance.

Beside the spider-boy, there was a rather volatile red-head kunoichi.

And her first meeting consisted of a foot, and then the ground. She wrenched herself up as the others were watching the scene rather curiously.

"Don't tell me you lost to this… _trash_. Kidōmaru." She called out to him and he turned his face away.

Sakura lifted herself up again before she was kicked down again, chin scraping against the ground. She met the girl's stare.

And her voice sounded rather hypnotizing to the senses, "Stay down, eat the dirt."

"Tayuya-san," Jirōbō, a rather pudgy boy with sharp eyes called out, while the other two twins, who she was introduced to as Ukon and Sakon, laughed animatedly, "This is rather unbecoming, please stop."

"Shut your trap, fatty!" She screeched. She brought her attention to the girl underfoot, playing a rather well defined tune on her flute.

Sakura watched as her skin started to melt away, dripping to reveal a femur and five rather well defined toe-bones. She was idly thinking of last-night's chicken stew.

She grinned.

And a few seconds later, Tayuya released her hold on the girl eying her with narrowed eyes. And this Sakura melted into the ground- she vanished, and the real kunoichi walked out, locking her gaze with the red-head.

And it seemed like moments before Tayuya finally responded, assessing the pinkette.

"Not bad, pinky," she finally smirked. And Sakura smiled back appreciatively, her eyes switched over to the other three members in the room, who were now looking rather unnerved at the two genjutsu users.

* * *

The missions were separated between Sound Four and Sakura and their leader Kimimaro. Sakura found her company rather quiet, and he only spoke only unless he was talked to. But then again, they were also given some of the harder missions to complete. Sakura learned fast that being successful was the difference between life and death.

"Your job is to keep Kimimaro _alive_ ," Kabuto told her, "You have to heal him, and make sure nothing goes wrong with him."

She wondered what made the boy so special. He was like one of the _other_ weirdos. She watched him crouch down and pull out a femur bone from the joint.

"Does it hurt?"

"No." He responded blankly.

The lack of conversation bothered her less and less. Because they were the sort of team who communicated through actions.

Teamwork, she thought to herself as she noted the sharpness of hi bone, shaping it into a weapon and turning it over.

 _Team-mate_ , she noted bitterly as she cleared her head and pushed up the hood over her head, strapping on the mask over her face.

She sensed two chakra signatures appear through the branches.

Their attire was dark, cloaked, signatures. They had no identifying hitai-ate.

Kimimaro was supposed to do all the talking during this mission. She watched as he examined the packaging that they were supposed to pick up in a secluded village in the land of Sound.

The boy had bid her to watch them, only reveal herself if they made any funny moves.

She was faintly listening to them speak.

She noted the way one of their lips moved.

'…Danzo-sama will be eagerly awaiting your answer…'

At least that's what she thought she had read. Then again, the name seemed familiar to her.

Sakura ran a thumb over her sound forehead protector, feeling the cleanly cut ridges of her sound symbol.

No, she didn't really want to remember anymore.

* * *

Winter is settling in.

The world is gleaming eerily under the moonlight as she mends Kimimaro's training wounds, her own lip is stained with blood. There are callouses and cuts all over her arms.

She runs a palm over Kimimaro's body, feeling the skin under her arm knit together. She thinks he should have been able to self-heal rather quickly. But then again even if he was _fine._ It couldn't hurt to do a little check-up.

Just like Kabuto told her to do so.

And well, he was better than her at taijutsu, more fluid, deadly- she could tell he was holding back for her. He _danced_ as he took out his enemies, he _danced_ around her. Not that it made her particularly pleased, but it was still a beautiful performance.

With a rather weak body, she found that learning her limits saved her life on more occasions than others.

And then she feels him bring a single forefinger, over her sticky, wounded skin, gently tracing them.

She closes her eyes in concentration.

And then she feels him pull out a bandage from his left arm, which binds his loose clothing and slowly wrap it over her arm.

She looks up at him questioningly.

"Because you don't have a lot of chakra." He tells her.

"I have the curse-seal," she taps at her neck.

"But you don't use it," he responds, a hint of curiosity in his voice, "You don't like using it."

He's tilting his head as he observes her. Her lips part to retort again but they close.

Sakura thinks he's rather observant, but then again, she doesn't need to be so callous. After all they were team-mates. And even if he was one of Orochimaru's 'precious' ones, she didn't have to be so _mean_ to him.

He's just a kid after all, just like her.

So in the courtesy and art of children in a playground, helping each other up as if one of them had scraped their face, she looks up and smiles politely.

"Thank you," she says, scratching the back of her head and picks herself off the ground. She turns around. And as she does, she vaguely hears him tell her, "Thank you as well."

She looks up at him questioningly.

"For the training session…" there's a hint of shyness in his voice, "…and for healing me."

* * *

"The world is messed up, I agree."

Sakura looked up at the other Sakura. She was seated on the cool comfortable leather of the office. Scented candles were lit up in the background and the lights were dimmed ever so slightly. It smelled of warm strawberry.

The other girl placed down the clip-board.

The other girl traced the edges of her coffee cup as the mind-space warbled around her.

"But when all things are said and done, no one cares. Everyone would _agree_ but they still wouldn't care."

"Oh yeah?! Well it's my party and I'll cry if I want to!" Sakura growled at the other girl who sighed.

"We're just tired, tired of everything. Tired of all the betrayal, tired of all the pain." She mumbled, staring at her hands. They were covered in neat, clean pink bandages-little Princess Emi chibi faces on them.

"I want to _forget_ , but I can't. You can be in denial, preach about how much you hate the world, how much it all needs to just fuckin' burn."

And Sakura watched as the girl put down her clip-board. And she started to peel out her bandages, revealing fresh healing skin.

She looked up at her as she continued speaking. There was a sense of raw honesty in her eyes. Sakura sat back uncomfortably as the girl gazed at her, direct, there was no shying away.

And when Sakura didn't respond, the girl went on.

"Yes, the world is messed up, yes, we're not princesses- we won't be saved every time. But we were never princesses. They won't come. We need to admit this."

And then the vase smashed to the ground and the window clattered as Sakura got up from the leather recliner and she folder her fingers around the girl's neck but the girl continued to speak. Her face twisted into a snarl.

"We only wanted to be princesses because it felt good. It felt good to dream. No we can't always be saved. This is a different story."

The girl leaned in holding the other girl, snaking her arms over her neck and moving down her lower back into a delicate embrace.

Sakura's eyes widened.

Her arms fell slack.

"And we've both been _horrible_ to each other." The girl mumbled into her long straggly, silvery pink hair. She was smoothing out the kinks and the knots as her hands ran through it, "You must have been so lonely…you must have been so _hurt_ …"

* * *

And Sakura and Kimimaro never failed a single mission that was designed for them in the _months_ to come. Sakura noted that she _couldn't_ do that.

"Would you like to go back into that cellar, Sakura-chan?" Kabuto hummed as he filled up a syringe and thrust it into her arm. He rubbed soothing circles into her arm and watched her with _hypnotizing_ awareness.

"Then I suggest that you do not fail- under any circumstance."

The months passed like that, she was the support and he was the leader, both of them moving in a sort of perfect-sync. Unbeknownst to her, their notoriety and ruthlessness began to spread, the S-class criminal duo.

No survivors.

"Shit! It's the sound two! Get the fuck out!"

There was a clatter of doors as Sakura walked inside gingerly, the room turned freezing and every single member within there, clattered to their knees, writhing as Kimimaro swooped in from the right.

Blood splattered over the walls as Sakura walked up gingerly toward the unconscious man wearing golden robes and holding a sword, the hilt covered with sharp brilliant colored diamonds, hard enough to crack through a skull, sharp enough to draw blood.

Kimimaro had knocked him out as she performed the genjutsu on his body-guards, then moved in as he performed the massacre.

She placed it on her hilt. There was a prickle of chakra outside the door.

"Incoming," she called out to him.

The door to the room slammed open.

"Take the target and leave," Kimimaro called out to her, and Sakura hauled the man's unconscious body over her shoulder.

She cast one last look over her shoulder at the intruders.

White hair, mask. And flashing under the overhead lights of the room was a Konoha shinobi headband.

She frowned as she turned around.

* * *

Hatake Kakashi caught sight of the girl with rather long pink hair, hid behind a single golden mask, it was unmistakable. But he had barely time to retaliate with the name that had been rattling around their minds.

She pushed up the flap of the window and disappeared into the night.

No it couldn't be. He thought as he brought up his blade to parry the sound shinobi's white, bone-like blade.

* * *

For Chuunin Ino Yamanaka, the mission was nothing but a sore pain in the ass, and had gone wrong from the beginning to end. The Yondaime could have very well recruited one of their other Yamanakas for this sort of stupidity. Perhaps even her stupid cousin Yuuichi, but why _her_?

It didn't take seconds for her team-captain, Hatake Kakashi to realize that they had failed protecting their client above. A rather rough, smack talking land-lord who possessed a rather valuable artifact of a sword.

He raised his head like a dog, sniffing the air as he widened his eye.

"Split up immediately," he barked, "Find the intruders, capture the client."

And she was stuck with none other than her lazy ass of a team-mate.

But no, it was certainly better than watching over the flower-shop or dealing with fussy old ladies and love-stricken shinobi who wanted their bouquets just _right_ and "that looks like a bow done by a two year old".

She gritted her teeth as she closed her eyes, performing the location scan, scanning the area for any escaping intruders as soon as Hatake informed her of what had happened.

"There!"

She screamed at her lazy ass of a team-mate as she careened over the chimney-tops, propelling herself forward- _fast_. Because her enemy was _getting away_.

"Shikamaru!" She screeched at the boy. But Shikamaru always managed to work when it counted.

And it was a single pole shadow illuminated underneath the large moon that the ninja had stepped into, had allowed the Nara capture the enemy-nin.

"Ino," he hollered out, "Take control of their mind. Find out who they are. I'm holding them in place."

And Ino brought her hands to perform the mind-transfer jutsu.

There was no proper way to be dramatic about this situation, Ino thought. Everything was so familiar, and Ino had not performed the mind-transfer on a lot of minds at this point in her career. But the enemy's mind was hostile but _familiar_.

Like forehead's.

It screeched in her ear. She screamed.

Like forehead's.

Something clutched at her throat and _no_ she wouldn't give in just _yet_ \- she just needed to-

Yet something about it- _something_. Like forehead's disgusting, _cold_ mindscape, where there was so much pain, just _so_ much pain.

Brushing those thoughts out of her head, because _forehead was dead_. That's what _they_ had told her.

She reached for the enemy nin's mask with her own hand and pried it off, before her soul was pushed back into her own body and she sat up with a jolt.

And everything happened at once.

Shikamaru widened his eyes in shock, his body fell slack- dropping the shadow jutsu.

Ino picked herself off the ground, screaming as the girl began to dart toward her, arm still around the bejeweled sword and the target still hauled over her shoulder. She slid the sword out of its scabbard which was tied around her belt.

The target slid out of her grasp.

The mask fell to the ground with a clanging thud, clattering off the roof as it disappeared into the depths below. As did their client, he fell from her grip and rolled around with a groan. But neither shinobi responded.

"S-sakura?" Shikamaru's voice halted her murderous adrenaline, flowing through her system.

She looked down at the boy.

And in the moonlight, their Konoha head-bands flickered in the moonlight as Ino screamed again.

She stopped and raised her green eyes to meet his, he walked up to her. They were unreadable- cold, _hard_. But she was afraid.

"Y-you're a-alive." He tried to reach for her face. Ino was whimpering behind her, watching the girl with wide eyes. Sakura met her stare and walked backwards.

There was a flicker of emotion passing through her face with each step.

"Wait!" He yelled. She turned her heel and flickered away.

Sakura Haruno was found. Alive. After almost two and a half, rather _long_ years.

Ino Yamanaka gulped again.

 _Forehead_ was alive alive alive.

* * *

"You had one job, to secure the client."

As Kabuto fingered the bejeweled sword. The candle light glinted against the cellar bars. She wasn't tied up, but then again she couldn't do anything else.

But then again it didn't matter. He raised his hands up to her taut face and ran a finger over the cheekbone.

"And you failed it, how disappointing." He whispered to her.

But then again she truly wasn't listening. Her mind was else-where. Face gazing downwards, at her sandaled toes.

* * *

"This is not us." The girl whispered into her ear, "We can't give in anymore. We need to be our own heroes. We need to forge a path for ourselves."

Because Sakura Haruno was an obedient girl. She was always an obedient girl and she always listened to what the older people told her to do, and she bore it all in silence. She was afraid, she didn't know where to go and what to do.

She was the flower you trampled on in the rush to get to wherever it was that you were going, or perhaps the daisy that you just stepped on just because you didn't like it, and you sort of hated everything.

Or you were just sort of having a bad-day.

She was tired of being pushed around. And maybe most of her was giving into all the pain. But there was always some part of her that was always fighting back, an itty bitty part of her.

No she couldn't give in.

"We can't let them win. We won't let any of them win."

And the arms around her back tightened as the girl sobbed into the crook of her neck. Sakura watched as the haze began to part- ever-so slightly back to a memory

Back to a distant memory.

To a different time.

And a time when everything seemed so right, and so much more simpler.

She has long bangs teasing her eyes. She scrunches her face up trying to hide her watery eyes. Her newly laundered dress is ripped and she has a bloody lip.

She looks up at her father, making faces in attempts to quell the water-works. Big girls don't cry.

"What in the blazes happened here?"

She doesn't answer. She looks off to the side.

"Sakura."

She doesn't answer.

"Sakura. Do not ignore me, young lady."

She purses her lips up, her chin jutting out with defiance. And Kizashi twitches his lip in amusement and exasperation.

"You look like a duck."

His attempt at a joke rolls off her back and he scratches the back of his messy pink hair.

"Sakura." He attempts more sternly, " _Look_ at me."

Sakura folds her arms and stares at the wall.

"Sakura." He continues again, "We can go at this all day."

"Forehead."

"What?" He blinks.

"They called me forehead." She sniffed. He smiles as if he doesn't really understand, and he doesn't. Because she has his forehead. Kizashi Haruno crouches towards her at eye-level, clearing his throat.

"So?"

"So?" She echoes angrily, stomping her foot for extra measure in pure indignation, "Akane-chan said I was a stupid _forehead_ that would never amount to anything! And then they took my ribbon and _stepped_ on it, because they said my _stupid_ forehead shouldn't be seen."

She waits for his reaction. He should have been angrier. But Kizashi maintains his cool, demeanor, plopping down on the ground in front of her, deep in thought.

"You know that's not true." Kizashi furrows his brow, "You know it's not."

She's angry now. "They said I could _never_ be a ninja because of my ugly forehead, because all it's useful for is target-practice."

Kizashi's face is blank. He stretches his arms towards her. She clutches his shirt, face still turned away. Her eyes feel moist, so she presses her eyelids down and bunches her face up. He's got mud rubbing off on him, her wet, soggy dress onto his freshly laundered shirt.

He smells like flowers.

He shakes his head, and slowly brings his own stupid, large forehead to hers. Locking his gaze with her eyes. Green met green, warm sunlit green buds met beautiful spring fields- bursting with life and promises.

"You can be anything you want to be, sweetheart."

The dam bursts forth, streams running down her cherub face.

"B-but you don't _get_ it."

"My little princess, my little scholar, my little adventurer, my little samurai." He continues as if he doesn't hear her.

She's still crying.

"My little, strong, beautiful _heroine_."

He plants a soft kiss on her _stupid_ forehead.

And as the mist cleared, Sakura raised her arms around the girl in front of her, hands pulling her toward her. The girl has her forehead resting against her own.

And there was another whisper, a wisp of a fight in it, a clatter of anger and the sound of welcomed retribution.

"We are first and foremost Haruno Sakura. And we will fight back."

Spring child.

Destined to push up above the ground, no matter what the circumstance.

And the two forms of Sakura turn around as something starts to loom in the corner of their mind-cape, raising their ugly and scraggly head. Rin's office starts to swirl and melt away into darkness, fading away at their feet.

That "thing" lets out an ear-splitting roar.

"Let's get rid of this unwelcome guest, first."

* * *

Kabuto raised the blade up to her neck, still crooning words at her.

"Look at you, you won't even move- you won't even do a single thing to protect yourself."

He raised his blade to her collar-bone.

Her hand caught his wrist.

And it was a rather climactic moment when the alarms sounded out throughout the entire base, ringing through the corridors and several inmates let out screams, rattling against the bars in excitement.

Intruder alert!

Like this was sort of a _new_ development! How exciting! Breaking the monotony, breaking the cycle!

Kabuto widened his eyes. He couldn't _fail_ Orochimaru-sama right now!

As she looked up at him, directly at him, her long bangs parting over her forehead and sliding over her cheek bones to reveal her eyes.

One clear green and one sharingan spinning in the right- a single tomoe. His breath caught in his throat in suprise. Her sclera was black.

She snapped his wrist.

* * *

 _A/N: I hope the progression is going on well, I mean I guess I'll have to elaborate on stuff in later chapters. Thank you so much for following this._

 _Before I go off on a tangent which most of you wouldn't really like to listen to- I'd like to address one reviewer who was a guest and put out a very very interesting point._

 _CJ: Thank you so much for your review and support! I'm really glad that someone's taking a liking to Sakura's character, actually several people have expressed appreciation for her character and I'm super glad that's she's coming off as nothing short of interesting (I hope). I really can't give away too much of the plot unfortunately. Yes, this is heavily inspired by Tokyo Ghoul. And yes, Sakura is very much Kaneki-ish, only a lot younger and writing her within her age group was a lot easier than say, writing someone as complex and older as Kaneki. And also bonus, they are both super bookish. Self-taught._

 _Ahhh I was practically screaming at 1am when I saw your review like YES YES YES someone caught on to Kaneki resemblance! And yes, Ishida-sensei did his research. Very well, if I might add._

 _Also, yes, I'm not fond of giving Sakura a power-up. But it fits within the rest of the murky plot structure in my mind...ehhhh_

 _Reviews, questions, concerns, flames?_


	5. Chapter 5

**I own nothing.**

 _A/N: Rated for swearing, blood, gore and abuse. If you are sensitive to any of that, please don't go further._

Chapter reupload December 18

* * *

Sometimes Rin Nohara would get the day mostly to herself.

Therapy was not a common practice in Konoha.

Most shinobi disliked keeping hospital appointments in general, preferring to skip out on them. And so, Rin often found herself waiting on appointments that never happened.

Today was one such day.

So she brewed herself a cup of coffee and leaned against the counter, sipping it carefully to gauge the temperature.

She busied herself with the taste and the structure of the liquid, too light and it didn't have the same effect, too strong and it was far too hard on the senses.

She was meticulous about things like that.

During these times, she would also make her way to her desk, reach into the bottom drawer and pull out a certain _pink_ journal.

She flipped through the pages.

She stopped at the final entry. The final entry where it all ended - where the owner stopped writing.

Forever.

 _And everyone will live happily ever after!_

* * *

The ear splitting roar began to morph, divide into something else. A collision of voices.

The world was beginning to form, a world between worlds. And Sakura watched it all begin, the leaves began to sprout from the ground, forming saplings and morphing into _dark,_ familiar shapes and spaces.

She shifted her weight from foot to the other as she listened the proceedings before her. She was ready to _fight_.

And it was the forest, the forest of death that haunted her darkest dreams so fervently.

Many voices, all speaking at once. All around her. Some louder than the others. Others softer. But all of them were whispering together in some sort of disorganized cadence.

It rang in her ears.

"Heroine?" One asked.

"She wanted to be a heroine?"

"Did you hear, Maki-chan? Mebuki's daughter was abandoned by her home village and now works as a _criminal_. How shameful."

"How shameful indeed. She should have stayed a civilian orphan. She would at least have led a better life compared to this."

"Sakura's grades when it came to paper assignments were great, but when it came to taijutsu, she got soundly beaten by Ino."

"Pathetic."

"She doesn't look like her mother."

"On the contrary she looks like her father. Why did Mebuki marry such a poor man?"

"Was it because he was a good man?"

"It doesn't really matter, because that _good_ man left his child nothing."

"That's right, they just left behind a helpless poor girl. At least if she had a bit of money in her bank, then she would be _worth_ something."

She simply watched the dark space between the trees, because he liked a reaction. And she wouldn't give him a reaction.

"She's worth nothing."

* * *

 _48 hours ago..._

Kakashi Hatake wasn't really one inclined to believe the uncanny.

But something _wasn't_ right.

It was the same feeling he got when Rin had disappeared from their encampment, once upon a time- a _long_ time ago. Call it dog's instinct. He had the ability to sniff out these uncanny situations.

And everything felt so sudden, he noted as he fought the sound shinobi, known as 'Bone'. The next thing he noted as he dodged a thrown _bone._ Which nailed itself against the wall beside him, was that the boy wasn't really trying.

Dog and Bone.

Nope, this was not the time to be making stupid jokes, he warned himself, albeit feeling slightly amused.

The client had gotten away.

He sort of knew that Ino and Shikamaru were trailing the other one right now, what was her name? Mask?

And nearly fifteen minutes later of dithering and dathering, Ino informed him through telepathy: "Dog, the client has been secured."

That piqued his interest as he looked toward the man in front of him. Why was he playing around with him?

But Bone kept fighting him. Albeit, sort of less aggressively, _more_ like _watching_ him. Kakashi knew the boy was playing around. But it was a far-cry from the notoriety surrounding that name.

Bone and Mask.

These two were particularly known for _cold,_ careful efficiency. A massive pain in the ass, or so he'd heard.

And they were both linked to the village of sound. A village which Konoha had been finding so difficult to locate in the past two years. Just like any evidence of the Saanin was just _clean_ , clear. Everything was just erased.

There was only one conclusion that he could come to, Bone was interested in him for one reason or the other.

And Kakashi really couldn't be bothered with any reason.

He also idly considered creating a distraction, a flash-bomb or whatever, so he could get _away_ and finish the mission. Go home, rest some. Probably catch up on the newest _Icha Icha_ trilogy.

Ahem.

But there was something awfully _funny_ about the whole situation. Because _bone_ wasn't even _trying_ to attack him. Just far more interested in playing around with him, watching him, observing him.

And then the question popped up.

"Are you Konoha shinobi?"

"And what if I am?"

And then Kakashi's eyes crinkled into a smile as he slid the tanto in his sheath.

"What do you want with a Konoha shinobi, Bone?"

And the boy was silent for a few seconds, green eyes regarding his value. Kakashi felt mildly perturbed. He had quite an intimidating stare for a runt. But then again, the boy was also the last remaining survivor of the Kaguya clan.

He finally spoke.

"Did you ever know a Sakura…Haruno…"

And Kakashi's friendly demeanor crashed to the floor.

* * *

 _12 hours ago..._

For Kabuto, managing the Sound headquarter base in the village of Otogakure was an easy task. Orochimaru often left him with simple, menial tasks, coordinate the base and its workings. Such as coordinating the cellar workers and make sure nothing happened to his prized patients. He was to report if anything felt off.

Being the right-hand man also included dealing with a particular sound team. The team that had come to be known as the Bone and Mask in the recent months - with an incredibly high success rate.

Sakura Haruno and Kimimaro Kaguya.

Kabuto was a fairly responsible individual- all things considered. But he couldn't, he really couldn't resist a _light_ threat at the team's most vulnerable member.

"Sakura-chan, what is the lining of the intestines made up of?" He asked her, as he dragged her numb body down the cellar cage. He threw her inside and she fell to the ground with a slump, hair falling over her eyes.

She brought her knees to her face, whimpering the answer under her breath, mechanically.

He brought up the sword which he had ripped from her belt, languidly observing the gems of the hilt, and glancing at her over it.

He didn't stop talking.

But Orochimaru told him _not_ to kill her. Kabuto wasn't going to kill her, of course.

"Amazing."

"Spectacular."

"Fantastic, as expected from the Hokage's son!"

"Why did forehead have to get on the same team as Sasuke-kun and his Honorable son?"

"Hello princess!"

Sakura clenched her eyes together as she held her head.

"I brought you lunch!"

Unflinching, unshaken, _unmoved._

She snapped open her eyes and flared her nostrils as she felt a sharp stab of pain to her side.

"What's wrong? Do you know what kind of insect this is?

She clenched her teeth, feeling herself give into the noxious miasma of madness. It was beginning to consume her.

No. No. No. _No._

"Now now, don't be picky. It's an excellent source of protein."

She bit her tongue. Be silent. Be silent. So she was.

"Hinata, don't play with Forehead. She's so weird."

"She's so creepy. So needy."

And there was a shrill sound of ugly laughter as the voices continued with their bitter words.

* * *

 _Present_

All for that eye, Kabuto thought bitterly, as he held his wrist, snapping it back into place.

The sirens blared throughout the base.

 _His_ eyes never leaving the girl who sat up, and then with frightening accuracy, she shot forward at him. He dodged her fist, only to meet her knee in the stomach.

And he gripped onto the sword as he slashed at her, drawing blood here and there. But she was fast. _She_ hadn't been _this_ fast. It was probably the effect of the senjutsu chakra.

She dodged left and right. And then she caught his arms. Her nails were digging into the skin of his wrists.

She caressed his face first, gently, she trailed over his cheek as he stood stock-still. Just like a _mother's_ touch.

Then she reached for his eye.

And hissing in pain, as she dug into his skin, ripping out flesh with her finger-nails.

"Does it _hurt_?" She screamed at him. He screamed back.

Her movements were haphazard but he could still predict them. So he directed chakra toward the spots where she was now attempting to pound.

He turned his head aside as she brought her fists to the cellar-walls, blow after blow.

He threw her off.

"Water-Release: Water Bullet technique." His fingers began to move _quickly_.

And she was still tumbling at the ground before the blast of water shot _at_ her, smashing through the cellar walls. She crashed onto the ground as the senjutsu chakra began to heal her.

The lights were swaying around, casting eerie haphazard shadows over the room.

This was not the time to be _playing_ around, he thought as he healed his eye. There were intruders into the base. He needed to get out – he needed to go fend off the base intruders.

But she stood up again, amidst the rubble. She cricked her head, left then right. Unflinching.

Orochimaru never stated her purpose for existence, not to him, not to anyone. He assumed that she was just sort of the trash-bag. A fancy, someone that the Saanin just like to exercise his whims on. Maybe also to _heal_ his precious vessel.

She was acting like a cornered animal, suddenly let off the chain.

It was such a pity that she was resistant to most of his drugs. But there was _still_ a slight slur in her step as she moved. Perhaps a larger dosage would do the trick next time.

"Orochimaru-sama, why are you making her your body-guard?"

Not that Kabuto cared. But there was this one time that Kabuto did ask him a question.

"Kabuto-kun, do you ever wonder why I let her keep the curse-seal? Why I allow her to have my senjutsu chakra in her body if she's so… _useless_ to my cause?"

But now that he thought about it. There were those instances, brief hints.

So he started to piece it together, pick up the words and phrases and hints over the past few months.

She was _nearly_ a meter away from his face when he brought his hands together, forming seals at lightning speed.

"Earth-release: Earth Cocoon."

The ground began to rise up around her feet, catching her, swirling around her body as she wriggled. She let out a deafening screech which mingled with the sound of the sirens belting throughout the chamber.

And the girl looked around the cellar room as the ground swallowed her up, coming together atop her head.

" _What do you think my senjutsu chakra_ does _to her body, her system, her mind_?"

Sasuke Uchiha was thought to be a carrier for the gene, given that his mother was a carrier. You could never really tell until it activated. No, the curse-seal was imbued with something _besides_ the senjutsu chakra. DNA. Invasive DNA that altered someone's coil.

But the sharingan gene was recessive, Kabuto thought. How could it possibly meld together with the girl's body. There was banging against the earth cage.

She wasn't Uchiha.

 _No_ , he could alter that recessive gene. It didn't have to stay _recessive_. It was evidenced in Sakura. She had managed to form _half_ a sharingan eye.

The invasive _virus_ containing Uchiha DNA, rendered it possible to morph the kekkai genkai eye into her own. And the senjutsu chakra would be working through her body, readjusting her DNA with _half_ an Uchiha gene. It was a rare case when it manifested itself in nature.

It was a thoroughly tedious process but it had happened.

No that wasn't entirely right.

Fight or Flight. _Stress_. When the body was under stress, it starts to destroy invasive subject, _hostile._ But her immune system was weak - it had been weak. And the months of his poison usage came to mind.

 _O_ r adapt to the new changes, the new DNA.

Several people who had taken the invasive sharingan gene into their body, were completely unable to replicate the gene - they ended up losing their vision and in some cases, their lives. They had recreated a new form of DNA. A new form of DNA that developed one sharingan eye.

A new form of sharingan eyes.

It was _possible_ , he thought excitedly.

Kabuto bit his thumb, attempting to from a telepathic connection with the sound bodyguards using their seals.

"Deal with the intruders, I have a little _situation_ here. Take as many sound-shinobi as you need. Kimimaro, you are in charge."

But even then, they had never had a successful prototype before, but it doesn't just activate.

The earth began to shake loose. She broke through part of it, with her insane strength fueled by the chakra flowing through her body.

So was this a failed replication? What did it- what could it _possibly_ do?

"Kabuto!" She called out, "Come _play_ with me!"

The possibilities were endless.

"Kabuto-kun," Orochimaru urged him in his head, "Why do you think Uchiha children require an emotional response to trigger the sharingan? The mind's eye?"

As she barrelled toward him, he caught a glimpse of her face as the earth closed up the spot again. Maniacal, angry, haphazard. It was a beautiful haphazard performance. Unstable. Unsteady. One second she was babbling about something else, the other she was steady, cold.

All her resistance, all her control had been broken.

"Because they have to fight back, Kabuto-kun. It's their body's natural desire to save themselves or their peers or their family, to _fight_ _back_."

* * *

"Do you want to watch the village burn?"

Sakura didn't reply as she fell to the grass, clutching at the leaves on all fours. Something morphed out of the ground as it bound around her legs, pulling it into the abyss underneath her feet.

"Don't you want to watch them all die?"

"It's okay, you know."

"It's okay to get mad."

"You have the _power_ to do so. Just like _him_ , just like _them_ , just like everyone who laid a finger on you."

The mind-scape above her began to morph into a sky, glittering skies above her. The stars flickered dully above her, like static.

Like the television screen, once upon many moons ago.

"I don't see what's wrong with expressing emotion. I don't see what's wrong with wanting it all back. You want it all back."

"But you _knew_."

"She _knew_."

And Sakura had her eyes clenched, no, _no._

"Genjutsu? He attempted to alter your mind with genjutsu? No, _Sakura-chan._ Your mind is fragmented. Broken. Painful. Pieces."

"And that's why you are so resistant to genjutsu."

"And you _knew_ , some part of you _knew._ "

"But you wanted them all to burn, you wanted all of them, you wanted the world to reflect all the anger inside you."

"You wanted to _hurt_ them all."

"And that's why they weren't safe from _you_. That's why you _didn't_ report the attack. That's why Sasuke was almost killed by you. You have _no_ power over your _own_ mind."

Not true. Not true. Not true. Not true. Oh but it was.

"It's true." She whispered through tears, "It's all my _fault_."

"That's right, Sakura-chan. You are nothing but a liar, a cheat and a swindler. They won't save you. They don't _care_ about a girl like you."

"And what's there to save anyways."

"You have _no_ home. No family. Now no friends. Nothing."

And the ground is closing around her waist as she's being dragged in.

And she caught glimpse of the skies above her, the glittering star-studded skies.

 _You have to look at what's in front of you._

The earth closed around a single brilliant viridian eye that was gazing upward through the crack.

* * *

And there was _nothing_ in the base.

No intruders.

Damn that alarm system!

Tayuya wondered if the alarms were going off at random. She spun her heel and flew through the deep underground tunnels.

"Find anything, fatty?" she hollered into her microphone.

"No Tayuya-san." He responded stiffly, "Please refrain from being so foul-mouthed, I can smell it from here."

And Tayuya snarled, " _Shut up_." She screeched into the microphone and added vehelmently, " _Fatty_."

"At least I'm not an unfortunate twig, about to be snapped."

He was getting rather bold, eh?

She suddenly stopped, with a twitch of her eye. Tayuya scratched her head, spreading her acute senses all over the vicinity- sensing for any enemy chakra signatures. But everything was so _hay-wire_.

Why? She wondered.

The prisoners were thrashing around, screaming, their chakra-signatures were flaring like mad. It was clouding her senses.

No it couldn't have been just a false alarm, right?

Kidomaru's voice crackled on the other end.

"Clear on this end."

* * *

And what was truly in front of her?

Her life. Her freedom. _This_ wretch of a man was in front of her. And that was why she couldn't _afford_ to listen to them. Right now the only thing that mattered, was the fact that she was still _alive._ After all the time that she wished she was _dead_.

She would take back her life.

And her hands grabbed onto the earth, pulling herself up.

"You aren't wrong."

There was silence through the clearing as she dug her finger-nails into the dirt. One foot over the edge and then another.

"But you are still not right."

And the woman sitting atop the clearing looked down at her, the blood-red ominous moon highlighting her features. Her dark hair was floating around her, eerily.

Deep, golden eyes met viridian.

"If Konoha's so moralistic, so _right._ If they are so _honorable_. At least I'm not trying to act like some dumb foil. Like a badly written villain, hiding in his little village. You _never_ attempted to _fight back_ , you just _ran_." She spat out more dirt as she crawled onto the dirt, pushing herself up to stand.

"I don't care about Konoha, or what might happen to it," She screamed, "But I hate the people who go around manipulating and bending people _around_ because they haven't gotten what _they_ wanted, Orochimaru- _sama_."

That's when the forest started to shiver.

There was laughter. But Sakura was steady. It clattered against her ears, but she held herself firmly.

"That's why all of this _madness_ …means _nothing_."

And that's when the forest started to recede, leaves. And there was cold laughter rankling through the air as her vision began to clear. She waited patiently as it continued. It meant nothing. _Nothing._

"Haruno Sakura…"

"Struggle."

"Fight."

"And live on."

She felt the world begin to focus.

And the marks over her body began to recede.

She met Kabuto's eye as she _tore_ down the earth cocoon, which was attempting asphyxiate her now.

* * *

He _knew_ that this was a genjustu. But something else was holding him down in place, an oppressive feeling. And he was seeing it all.

As far as he could remember, he never really had a name. A _true_ name. Someone else had named him. And that was his precious friend Urushi.

Young Kabuto only knew of dark days before the orphanage.

And he was only five when someone would come home, stumbling through the door frame. Who was it?

This was father.

"Boy," he called out as he walked up to him and knelt before him.

The boy widened his eyes as he took a single hand up in his palm. He was stroking it gently, carefully.

And then he snapped a finger.

Kabuto screamed.

Did he kill father? Yes he did.

Father was lying in his own puddle of blood.

There was a knife in his hands.

And then the scene changed.

Someone found him. Who was it? He doesn't remember who it was, but it didn't matter.

"I'll be a good boy." He whimpered as he was taken into the orphanage.

Kabuto flinched. In front of him was a boy, a young boy lying poisoned on the ground. The boy's name was Urushi. And there rolling around his feet was the poisoned piece of cake, half bitten.

Who was it meant for, precious? It was meant for the mean lady who beat him if he made a noise. Or if she'd had too much liquor.

"No," He whispered as the mean old woman came up to him.

And the scene quickly began to warp away. Some part of him _reminded_ him that this was a genjutsu- another was drowning it all. The other voice was full of screams. He brought his hands up to release the technique upon him.

But something caught his hand. Fingers, closing around his wrist, tightly.

He always liked one of the ladies who worked at the orphanage. Her name was Nono Yakushi, and she was a rather important person to him.

Who was it?

This was mother to him.

"Kabuto-kun." She smiled at him, that painful, cold, wretched smile. And then her mouth began to fill up with blood, spilling from her lips. He was hollering and screaming curses as he knelt down on the ground. His hands bloody as he held up the sword.

It clattered to the ground.

"Mother" had worked for a man in the council, who threatened to _cut_ the orphanage funding if he wasn't given away for their purposes. So she was sent away. But she had disappeared. And he had fallen for a wicked ploy given to him by an old man, an old man with bandaged eyes. There was one mission he was given.

What was the mission? He killed 'mother'.

Her face contorted into rage, into anger, "You killed _Urushi_ and _me_. You don't _deserve_ to live."

No no no no no! Don't look at me like that, 'mother'! It warped again.

He was ten. He had to work to fund the orphanage. It didn't matter that it was bloody work, he was _talented._

"Yakushi, welcome to root."

The old man that headed it, promised him care, comfort all in return for _hard_ work.

"Killer killer killer killer."

All eyes on him.

What a bad child. What a bad _bad_ child.

Indeed what a bad child he was, and that's how the Saanin found him, when he was tired of all the infiltration missions into all the villages. He lost his identity. He was losing his mind. He was seven different people all at once.

Faceless. This was what he was.

"Let me show you who you really are." His eyes were glittering with promises. He was holy, he was _hope_.

"You see Kabuto-kun, there's a lot of unchecked justices in this world. Why do you think that is? Because the system favors those in power. Because there's a hierarchy of power in this world."

And those were the words of truth out of the mouth of a fanatic.

"In this world, if you don't have power. You die." Kabuto repeated, "That's why people are _so_ bad."

And Orochimaru was still speaking in his ear, over the body of a child, across the operation table under cold blue lights.

"That's not right, Kabuto-kun. What fun would this world be without villains?"

Power. Control. Power. _Control_. Because the system was a game, you had winners and losers. Every fight, every spar, every war, everything had a villain. The world just worked like that.

That was immediate perception. What you didn't see, was what was birthed out of that colliding force.

And then there were villains born in the conflict, the collision, the chaos. Agents of Chaos.

"Who would _make_ people see the darkness of their ways? Not everything is all rosy and nice. I want the whole world to know how everything is _not_ right."

Tell a man he was a dog. Drive him up the corner. Tell him that he didn't belong, take away his family, his friends, his life.

"Who better to show the world that? Than an _outsider_."

And you will have created a _monster_.

He dropped to his knees as he watched his precious people walk up to him, kunai raised.

* * *

The world began to clear around her. It felt sharper, like she had just woken up from a fresh dream.

Back then, all the conversations over the months began to come back to her.

Anatomy, books about the kekkai genkai from Konoha all authored by unnamed people, information stolen by Orochimaru. And in his lab sometimes, she would trace the spine of the folder and read.

He had let her. He'd watch her with an eerie secretive smile.

Kabuto was whimpering on the ground, kneeling in the position of a man in prayer. His eyes were wide, as if he was seeing something, something _holy,_ and something heavenly. Filled with the religious gusto of his final dreams, surrounded in his own blood.

She had the sharingan. A gift, a curse and the pain that came with it.

Was it worth it? She wondered idly.

He started screaming.

"I did it!"

"Did what?" She asked as her earth restraints began loosen around her, melting to the ground. She walked up to him gently, picking up the sword. Sakura licked her chapped, bloody lips.

"Forgive me! Forgive me!"

He was hysterical, painfully hysterical as if seeking forgiveness. He looked childlike and _not_ like the man who painfully tortured her.

"Okay," she told him, closing her eyes, "Be forgiven, then."

Because they were all just wretched, wretched human beings in the end.

He started to smile.

She raised the sword above his chest.

And with a swift motion, she sliced off his head. A clean cut.

It rolled off his shoulders, splattering against her clothes.

And hobbling, wounded and tired, she slammed the sword into the ground. There was an odd feeling, and odd quietness. But the alarms were still ringing. But the silence in her head was deafening as the laughter resounded in her head, slowly fading away. It was an odd contrast.

And that's when three projectiles sliced through the air, Sakura looked up in time as she dodged them, flipping backwards. The three bones sliced through the fabric of her vest, lodging themselves into the wall.

She turned to the boy who had entered.

"Hello Bone."

* * *

For Kimimaro, the thought of Kabuto dead, did not really matter. He was just another sacrifice for Orochimaru-sama. Kimimaro had grown up in violence. Dead men were dead men.

"Sakura." He responded.

There had always been some sort of conflict within him as he thought back to the conversation the night before. The man, the man who called himself Dog.

"What do you know about Haruno Sakura?" Dog's voice was threatening. Kimimaro tried to discern the tone, was it friendly? Hostile? Did they _hate_ her?

"Are you a friend or foe of hers?" He asked him.

"That depends on what you mean by either."

"What do you mean?"

"Mask is Sakura, isn't she?" Dog cut through his conversation impatiently. He had his eyes narrowed.

Kimimaro began to ponder for a few seconds, he could kill the man. But the Konoha shinobi _could_ be useful.

"Yes. Her name is Haruno Sakura." He responded quietly, gauging for any reaction.

The man stared at him for a few seconds, blankly.

And then he crumpled down to the ground with a sigh. He crouched, his hands running through his head.

"Thank goodness, she's alive."

Friend.

"Will she be welcomed back into your village with open arms if she's _mask,_ if they find out who she is and what she's done?" He asked him. The man seemed to think on that for a few moments. He was silent before he looked up. He shoved his hands into his pockets, deep in thought.

"Are you here to kill me too?"

Sakura was beginning to heal her wounded arm, running a forefinger over her cuts and bruises. She didn't belong here.

"I guess that's fine. It means I'll just have to fight back."

But she was here.

"Why so quiet, Kimimaro?" She looked up at him, eyes cold, and hard, "Something got your tongue?"

And the sirens were still ringing in the background.

* * *

Obito's student.

After all these years of watching the dead-last blather on and on about his precious little genin.

"Bakashi," He swayed back and forth as he slurped the sake messily, the liquid dripping down his chin, "You should be a Jounin-sensei. Moooooost rewarding job ever."

"That's nice, Obito," Kakashi replied as he shoved the man off his shoulder, "Now let go of me."

And the Uchiha was too drunk to walk home, so being the best friend of the dead-last loser, he had to _walk_ him home. But not like how he found him after Sakura had gone _missing_.

"Why won't they believe me?" He was asking hoarsely, throat raw and scratchy. They had put him behind bars for a few days, lest he try and go after the Saanin.

And also because he had nearly assaulted the clan-head.

"Do you think Sakura would _ever_ try to _kill_ Sasuke? Ever? _No,_ she took his place." His eyes flashed angrily into red. Kakashi held him back as he tried to reach for Fugaku Uchiha's impassive face.

"Obito, consider the implications," Minato said, as he grabbed onto his former students' shoulder, _firmly_ , "Sakura is clan-less, she has no _worth_ in the eyes of the Saanin. And if she truly took Sasuke's place- then of what use would she be to him?"

Anko had it worse, she nearly lost her mind.

" _FUCK it_ , _fuck this._ " She screeched, "You have _got_ to be kidding me. You mean to say dead-last would lie? Forget _me_. But _dead-last?_ I don't care about whatever glory this damned village has, because if you are going to let an _innocent_ shinobi die just because you don't trust dead-last and _me?"_

Obito was whispering, "She's not dead." Over and over.

She continued, ignoring him.

"You think Pinky _no-_ bad-haircut Pinky would _actually_ go off on her own willingly with someone who has played around with this village for _years_?"

And Minato was looking at her, hard-eyed. Because he couldn't be away from his post for long, there was dark circles under his eyes.

Because no one would believe either of them, that Sakura was _kidnapped._ Given their histories. And emotions never fit with cold, cruel logic. No one had time for tears in the _busy_ village. No one had time to _listen_.

And the village was _busy_ during the apex of the chuunin exams.

Unfortunately, the key features of the year, the Uchiha clan-head's boy and the Honorable Hokage's son was not present for the examinations. It was sort of disappointing to a lot of people.

They also couldn't spare any extra personnel to go after the Saanin, while they were still trying to root out Sound-shinobi amidst them. And Kakashi understood that, it was a stressful job.

Between an obligation to his village which would be so vulnerable to attack and his former student and son, Kakashi found everything so unbalanced. It was always unbalanced in favor for Sakura.

The balance of power never swayed in her direction.

And he still heard Anko echo in his head.

"Pinky is a lot of things, she's a brat through and through. But she's not a dishonest coward of a snake. She's _honest_. She doesn't deserve this."

And Obito voice was still in his head as he spoke the next few words.

"She c-can't be dead!"

Kakashi leaned against the tree and looked in the direction of the of the supposed rendezvous point. Ino rubbed her arms in the cold, trying to get some feeling into them.

Shikamaru was lost in thought, the Nara genius scratched the back of his head.

It had been approximately, two hours since they had been here.

Kakashi could only hope that _they_ were just fashionably late.

* * *

For Sakura, the entire prospect of being _free_ was surreal _._ She had never thought about what she might do. None of it mattered right then. She just wanted to leave.

She had never thought of where.

"You're saying that you made a deal with a Konoha shinobi to take me back to Konoha alive, with no evidence of what I've done? Who I am? Is this a dream?" She scoffed.

"What do you want to do?" Kimimaro asked her, "Go rogue?"

She considered it for a few minutes, yes, she could go rogue. She could be hunted too, she didn't feel like being hunted like this.

She was finally free to think.

He continued speaking, "You could erase all evidence of your existence here. You could go back there. You could start living a peaceful life. You don't have to be a ninja anymore."

Peace? She thought. What a foreign word.

"Or you could be a Konoha shinobi, and one day you'll meet me in battle. Either ways, you'll die if you stay here since you killed Kabuto. You might have killed Kabuto but you won't be able to kill Orochimaru, yet."

He was talkative, she noted with slight irritation.

But she didn't say anything, because he was right and slightly wrong. She had the sharingan, she had that damn eye that was keeping her alive all this time. It wasn't a matter of _when_ Sakura knew, but there were brief moments when it would attempt to activate - but it didn't.

She didn't let it. Back then she didn't want to _fight back_.

Sometimes, she pieced two and two together when she realized that her _right_ eye wasn't being normal. He had _done_ something to her. But back then, she only fought for others, not for herself.

Because she wouldn't fight him.

"He wants the damn eye," she responded quietly, "I'm not dying _yet_."

Kimimaro sent her a raised brow. "So do you want to stay here?"

That's right, she couldn't stay here. Because it was something that _he_ wanted. And she wouldn't give him that. But something was slightly off about the whole proposition.

"Aren't you supposed to serve your master, Orochimaru? Why are you bothering with me? This is disobeying his wishes."

Her words echoed across the room. And the look on his face made her _sick_ to the bone. He looked _pained._

"I only wish for the best for Orochimaru-sama," he said slowly.

Because that was the face of a sincere, honest kid who truly _loved_ the Saanin. In all the years that she had known Kimimaro as Bone and then as a friend. All he did was look up to the Saanin. There was a double meaning to those words.

Because they both knew that she would end up killing Orochimaru, sooner or later. Or be killed.

She wasn't strong enough…yet.

"And you aren't the best."

And all the Saanin had ever done was use him.

It was all just so disgusting.

"Why?" She asked hoarsely, "You're going to be his vessel! Are you out of your mind?"

And then her tone changed dramatically.

"Come with me, Kimimaro." She whispered, "Come with me, we can go _find_ ourselves in this world again."

He shook his head. As he walked up to her.

"I know Kimimaro! He's just _playing_ around with you." She pleaded, her voice was hoarse again, "Fight him. Fight him! You can fight him, _bone_."

She felt desperate and giddy all at the same time. Because he _wasn't_ listening.

"You don't belong here, Sakura. And after all this, we can't fight on the same battle field anymore."

He held onto her arm and she followed him, numbly.

Steps quickened.

He began to lead her through the underground maze, up into an opening that was rarely used. She listened to him in rapt attention. She nearly tripped as she stumbled onto grass, over the step.

He then quickened his pace. As did she. She was still trying to convince him.

"What exactly are you going to profit from him?" She asked angrily. She grabbed his shoulders and pushed him against the bark of the tree.

And the next moment, she was speaking softly.

"You can come with me. We can _do_ something, _together_."

They were both breathing hard, glaring at each other. He pushed her off him, slowly, carefully.

"You would be dead right now." He replied slowly, a hint of a threat in his voice, "You are weak, you are wounded. You are not alright. You are in a fragile state of mind, Mask."

And he was reminding her of her code-name. She stiffened at his authoritative tone.

For Sakura, in the wake of her new freedom, sirens still ringing in her ears. The pounding of adrenaline in her body began to rise, in anger.

Because she _wasn't_ Mask anymore.

"But you wouldn't," she said lowly as her sharingan switched on. He flicked his eyes over her shoulder. She tried to catch his gaze.

"No, I _wouldn't_." He acquiesced, coldly, "I just want to protect my precious ones."

 _You don't belong here, and I want to give you a chance to get away, from all this madness. And you know it._

And within his precious ones, there was also _him._ It didn't matter if his surrogate father was a criminal, it didn't matter if the snake was ripping out his bones - the fool still worshipped him like a zealot. He still _loved_ him.

"He doesn't care for you," she screamed, "He doesn't care for anyone. Orochimaru- _sama-_ this and Orochimaru-sama- _that_ , _this_ wretch of a man doesn't deserve to exist!"

He took off into the forest, slipping through the trees and dodging branches as she belted after him. She was still calling out to him.

"Listen to me!" And he spread his senses acutely before he dropped to the ground. Three chakra signatures came into his peripheral. He turned to look at her.

"The next time we meet. You won't be mask, I won't be bone."

She opened her mouth and closed it, as he shoved the golden mask into her grasp.

"For that time, I don't know who you will belong to. But either way, rogue or Konoha. I will _kill_ you."

He looked over her shoulder and she turned around, to meet the eyes of Kakashi Hatake.

And Sakura registered it all, processing it. They were giving her an _opportunity_. She would be meeting _everyone_ again. And the prospect made one part of her absolutely _delighted._ The other part was disgusted at her happiness in seeing all of them again.

"Sakura…" She turned to the voice of Shikamaru. One of her _friends._ Everything felt so strange after such a _long_ time. It almost seemed like a dream. She didn't know if it was good or bad.

His Konoha head-band was flashing in the moonlight. And then there was Ino Yamanaka, behind him.

He sounded happy. She hadn't heard that sound of happiness in a while.

She turned back to Kimimaro, snappishly.

"I don't care if you protect him or not, but he _will_ die under my blade."

But Kimimaro replied quietly, "If you want that, you can come."

She spun around to face him fully. Her hands shooting out, clutching his shoulders. Part of her _just_ wanted to _reason_ with him, but one bit of her was telling her that _he_ wouldn't listen. He continued speaking.

"You can come kill him. But I will be waiting for you as well- keep that in mind."

She gazed at him for a few seconds, trying to read the look in his eyes. He only stared back at her, tiredly.

And she let him go. Because she too had made decisions for _herself_ and her precious people. Just like he was making now, a decision that would _hurt_ him.

But she had to let him go because that's what he _wanted_.

She clenched her fingers into the ridges of her mask, a reminder of their days together. A parting gift. He sent her one last look over his shoulder.

 _Rest for now, Sakura._

* * *

"Hey."

There was no response, the sun was shining brightly over them. She had her fists clenched together.

The little girl in front of her was bent over a flower as she tried to fix it with muddy fingers, making sure that it stood upright, under the sun.

"You've always been so pathetic, you know," she said, "Always so pathetic, letting people step over you. Being the nice girl so Sasuke-kun would notice you. Being shy, being alone."

Her fingernails dug into her palm.

"And then the chuunin exams happened, and I was so _damn_ angry at you. I was so damn angry and I didn't even know why."

"Everyone said you died, everyone said you weren't worth looking for. And the saddest part was that _everyone_ just gave up on you. Look at you now."

The girl turned around, not exactly to face her, but she was looking over her shoulder at somethingelse, a person, a place, a different time.

Ino knew it was just a faint memory, a faint painful memory for her. When she was younger, she often watched the girl play by herself. Making sand-castles and talking to herself about this and that. And no one in the play-ground wanted to play with her.

There was a bright smile on five year old Sakura's face as she twirled around in her muddy dress, the sun in her eye and a rather large smile on her face.

There was mud underneath her fingernails.

Because she had saved the flower's life.

She decided to name the flower, and was going on and on and on, babbling about something or the other.

And fifteen year old Ino Yamanaka gave her as sad watery smile, as if attempting to be friends. Because the girl she had seen had been such a far-cry from this girl. This girl had cuts and bruises all over her arms. She wasn't smiling, she was cold, she was aggressive, she was angry. There were bags under eyes and deathly pale skin.

She looked sick. She also looked like she wanted to set the whole world on fire.

Kakashi began to speak, as Kimimaro left, "Hello Sakura."

She didn't respond. She was looking down, looking tired, weak.

"I have to discuss many things with you." He said quietly, "But not right now, we're too close to anyone to listen. And the Otokage might be sending in people…"

"Yakushi Kabuto is dead." She responded harshly, "I killed him just now."

Ino widened her eyes and remained silent.

"He didn't send anyone after us, Orochimaru is not in the base." She responded, "Whatever you have to say, say it right now."

Kakashi sighed, "I was afraid that you would be like this."

"Like what? It's not as if I'm not being treated as anything less than a criminal. Does Konoha know that? Will they accept me with open arms knowing what I've done? No, they just favour the children who are _clan-_ children."

Ino and Shikamaru both flinched at the hurt tone in her voice. Because it was true. If the Yamanaka family was missing their heir, they would have been out searching for her. But Sakura had no blood-ties that were actually interested in her well-being.

But then again, it had been such a long time, she reasoned. It was understandable that she was acting like this.

She sounded so _betrayed._

But surprisingly, the only one unfazed was Kakashi who calmly addressed her.

"Sakura."

"Why don't you just _kill_ me now?" She asked, her voice raw, "Why didn't any of you _look_ for me? Do you know what I've had to _go_ through?" But there were no tears in her eyes.

"We tried," Kakashi replied, honestly, "He tried. Your team tried. _You_ need to listen to me."

"NO!" She barked at him. Ino flinched but Shikamaru beside her remained calm.

"No you will," Kakashi responded, roughly placing two hands on either of her shoulders, and looking at her directly. Ino's breath caught. What had they done to her?

She had two swirling tomoe in her right eye, encased in bloody red.

The _sharingan_.

But Kakashi continued on, unfazed.

"This is not really the place to be discussing this. But I agree with you. They don't care about you. Yes that's true."

"Kakash -," Ino started. But Shikamaru stopped her, holding his hand up.

"And they won't care about you until you have something special to offer them. Your worth to this village died when you supposedly 'defected' with Orochimaru."

He was watching her for a response, but she gave him none. She was just watching him, clenching her fists.

"But that doesn't mean the people you know, the people who care about you, stopped for one second to look for you."

Ino noted that he didn't mention her team-mates, but rather, people who cared for her.

There was silence for a few seconds. Sakura crumpled to her haunches, tiredly. And it seemed like the storm was abating, quietness settling in the air as she was left to deal with what was the wreckage in the aftermath.

She ran a hand through her hair, smoothing out all the kinks and ridding herself of all the dried blood that had gotten on it.

As she processed those words she thought to herself, even if they hadn't come, what could they have done. Within the larger schemes of things, she promised herself to fight back, alone.

It was alright, if they didn't come to save her. Because she could save herself.

And what happened didn't matter, the village didn't matter and all their words and schemes to be the best of the best of the best of the best. Smashing lives and people along the way.

Because even their enemies were no _better_.

It only made her blood boil that there _were_ still out there. _He_ was still out there.

The other three shinobi were silent. The silence seemed calming to her senses.

"Sorry," she mumbled, as her sharingan eye flickered off.

"Don't be." Kakashi replied quietly. She had the right to be angry. All things considered, the girl in front of him was far different from what he had remembered. Sadder, wiser and more mature. A product of her _circumstance_.

Perhaps happy endings were contrived, and the war would still rage on her head. But maybe just maybe it would be okay to rest for a little bit.

And even if she was still bitter, those words changed it all. Because they had still _tried_. And she really wanted to see everyone.

They remembered her.

* * *

On the way home, she talked little. She mostly thought.

"I don't want to arrive by day-light, if that's okay." She told Kakashi as she tucked away her mask into her sleeve.

"That's fine, I've sent out a letter saying we'll be delayed a few days. We need to talk about your backstory."

And she sighed as she leaned into the sleeping bag. Shikamaru was on the futon opposite her and Ino was beside her. Sakura recalled the conversation that the two of them had had about everything that happened.

"I'm not going to lie," the girl said stubbornly, "We haven't had a great history."

Sakura looked up with raised eyebrows at the girl.

"And fairly certain that it's quite pointless to go back there, because I'm fairly certain there was some mutual feelings." She continued stiffly. And then the façade broke.

"Look, I just want to be friends okay." She sighed.

There was silence and Sakura watched her mumble and twiddle her thumbs.

"Why?" Sakura asked simply, "Why do you care now? Is this pity-."

"This is not pity!" Ino snapped, "Look, I'm just tired over fighting over some petty elementary school spat. I'm not what you want, I'm not who care about. I've been a colossal bitch to you and I'm not going to say something like - I didn't mean it."

"Because I did." She narrowed her eyes, "I was sick and tired of you moping around, hanging around everyone, looking for someone who would be your friend."

Over the clearing, Shikamaru coughed as he looked toward Kakashi with a raised eyebrow. Kakashi sighed and rolled over, because he just wanted to sleep.

"But this is not about our _academy_ days, I can be what you need." Her eyes were shining with tears, "I mean dammit, forehead."

And to her great surprise, Sakura smiled a small smile as she wiped off the blood off her body.

Ino stopped and watched her with wide eyes.

"That's fine, Ino." She replied quietly, "That's enough, you don't have to force yourself to be my friend."

"That's not what I mean!" Ino barked, "Listen forehead. I'm not who you want as a friend. You want someone who'll tell you nice things. I'm not that kind of person, I'm going to be straight-up, no lie, honest with you."

Sakura paused whilst rubbing off a stain on her shirt to look up at her.

"I'm not who you want but I'm what you need right now." Ino's bottom lip trembled, "Because when you go back there, there'll be lots of lies, deception and things that you'll have to keep up. You'll have to give up your identity - whatever this is. You can't have a bloke like Shikamaru."

Sakura briefly wondered if the girl was trying to convince her _not_ return to Konoha.

She gestured toward the Nara who grumbled under his breath, something about "leave him out of this."

"You need someone who's honest." She repeated, clenching her fists and breathing heavily.

And Sakura considered it for a few seconds, because it was true.

"Okay." She replied, "That works out."

And that was how Ino Yamanaka and Sakura Haruno became _mostly_ friends.

After she had expressed her wishes to arrive at night, to avoid any sort of curious stares, Shikamaru nodded understandingly.

"That can be arranged," Kakashi said looking at his watch, "It works out because your return could cause quite a stir. It's quite unfortunate that you are on one of the most controversial teams in Konoha."

"I always asked myself why," Sakura said lightly, "I couldn't have ended up with Shikamaru or Chouji or Hinata." She scratched the back of her head.

"I had to end up with Ino and Chouji because our fathers were on the same team. It was sort of a given." Shikamaru defended himself.

Sakura sent him a serious look, "My condolences that you had to end up with Ino-pig."

"What was that, forehead?!"

"The second thing," Kakashi coughed, interrupting them, "that we need to consider is your new identity. I'm going to be honest with you, Sakura. If you weren't on Obito's team and I didn't know you personally, I would have killed you."

There was silence in the room. Sakura shrugged.

"Yeah, I understand." She nodded nonchalantly, "I mean you are loyal to your village and bound by the rules. I'm a defector, a missing nin and a criminal to top it off."

There was some uncomfortable looks in her directions, but Ino was watching her intently.

"But I wouldn't have liked to kill you too, Kakashi." She continued, "I don't think Obito-sensei would have liked that very much. I'm glad you made this decision."

There was some gratitude in her voice.

Kakashi noted that she still called him 'sensei' even after all these years.

"We could peg you off as being lost in a faraway land." Kakashi wondered.

"Because it takes two and a half years to get back home." Ino deadpanned, "No offense, I'm sure they'd just think she's too dumb to get back."

"Lost is good," Shikamaru continued, "Think about it, lost and with amnesia."

"And somehow she got the sharingan!" Sakura piped in cheerily, with no cheer in her eyes.

There was silence.

"Now that's another problem on our hands," Kakashi sighed, "I hope that's not a transplant."

"Not really," Sakura replied, "Do you think he'd keep me alive to just bless me with the gift of the transplanted sharingan? And _not_ use it on himself?"

Everyone in the room was watching her. She tapped her seal, sparing them the details. Because it didn't matter right now.

"All I know is that he _altered_ me dramatically. Not my mind, but my body. I've known it for a while…and it _finally_ activated the night I killed Kabuto."

None of them asked her _why_. Her words were sort of hollow.

"Long lost Uchiha with amnesia." Shikamaru mused after a bit.

"Can't we just say she's forehead's long lost sister." Ino threw up her hands in frustration.

"Who is related to the Uchiha?" Sakura added nonchalantly.

"None of you are helping," Kakashi's eyes crinkled into a smile. Dark vibes emanating from him.

* * *

As proposed, the party arrived on the road to Konoha roughly round 3:30 am sharp. For Sakura, that meant a flood of nostalgic feelings and memories that she really didn't want to remember. Because it was painful.

And she felt like a different person right now.

It was so tiring, but she also felt _somewhat_ excited. But then again, there was also that rational part of her - that reminded her. Not everything would be alright.

So she didn't, she just looked on, examining how the trees had grown. Or perhaps the moon illuminating the pathway of the newly paved roads. And even back then, as Mask, they had tasks outside the Fire-country.

And most of them involved situations around the countries outside the five great nations. And sometimes they were involved in situations right in the midst of volatile political situations.

Sakura had no way of understanding the damage she had caused.

She knew that she couldn't just walk out of everything like everything was _over_.

Because it wasn't.

"Just go according to the plan, and everything would go smoothly," Kakashi informed her.

"Keep your chin up," Shikamaru told her, "The council will be a pain to deal with but I'm sure if you gave them whatever they wanted, they'd drop down."

And that's when the towering Konoha gates came into view. Sakura felt slightly intimidated. She stopped, still feeling like everything was a vague dream.

This would be just another bad _nightmare_. At least Shiro-chan and Kimimaro would still be awake. She felt her heart grow heavy as she thought about the latter.

She was so fucking scared.

She gazed at the ground as Kakashi walked up to the gate guards.

Shikamaru raised his hand to pat her head, but stopped. As did Ino, who leaned closer to her. They both shared an uncertain look. Shikamaru shook his head at Ino.

 _She's not ready yet._

"We'll get through this." Shikamaru whispered into her ear.

"He's right, forehead." Ino smiled at her, "Welcome back."

And she only tugged her hood further over her wet eyes.

"They've sent summons to wake the Hokage." Kakashi informed her, as they walked down the mostly quiet streets.

And Konoha at night looked breathtaking as usual. It was after-all, one of the richest villages in the five-nations.

Sakura tugged her hood over her head as she gazed around. It had _sort_ of changed around here. There was still the old man's ramen shop, now closed. The bars were open and there were still people inside.

There was the Hokage's tower ahead of her.

The great village of Konohagakure no Sato. And she could make out the outline of the four Hokages in the moonlight.

She thought about her old apartment.

Ino and Shikamaru had gone home. They promised to be there when they woke up. She couldn't fault them for being tired.

She gazed at her hands.

"I have somewhere to take you while we wait for Pakkun to return." He told her.

And he led her down a _very_ familiar path. And she could still hear her team-mates training here, she could still remember sparring with Sasuke and Naruto, on the days leading up to the chuunin exams.

And he stopped in front of a stone. A memorial stone. For all those who had died in duty for the village.

"He'd come here every-day. Even if it rained, and he would talk to you about his day, what Naruto and Sasuke did and anything else. Sometimes he'd come here and just sit down and say nothing at all."

He didn't turn around to gauge her reaction.

"But he never forgot. They never forgot."

Sakura's eyes widened as she gazed at her scratched name into stone.

And there was a single bottle, a cherry blossom branch propped into it.

* * *

3:45 am

.

.

.

"Oi teme," a certain _blonde_ ninja poked his team-mate, "I'm sleepy, why'd you have to make us travel this late?"

"Well," The Uchiha muttered, "Deal with it, honorable dobe. We're arriving exactly on time, never late, exactly on time."

And Naruto muttered something about being an Itachi-wannabe, causing Sasuke's ears to flare up. There was another figure, a tall hulking figure, walking away, hunched.

"Sasuke-pyon," Obito whined, dragging on the 'o' for extra effect, "Why did you have to make us, your poor old sensei travel this late at night? Sasuke-pyon is so mean. This is not an ANBU mission."

"This is great practice for us if we ever take the ANBU exams!" Sasuke-pyon argued.

And Sasuke-pyon, the ever responsible Uchiha of the group decided that the two of them were thin air, as they trudged along the path toward their ever flourishing village hidden within the leaves.

And the gate-guards were engrossed in conversation. Kotetsu and Izumo looked up at the new entrants.

Obito noted that they looked sort of wide-eyed and almost caught off-guard.

"…pink…"

"Mhmm…?" He asked them curiously, raising an eyebrow.

And they both stiffened.

"What's up with you guys?" Naruto asked them, confused.

"Oi Naruto- you'll never believe who-MMMMPPPPHHH!" Izumo started, only to muffled by Kotetsu, who sent them a sheepish look. And Sasuke, Naruto and Obito shrugged it off as they wrote their names into the sign-in book.

But Sasuke and Obito shared a single look.

Obito eyed the name above his.

"Oh Kakashi just returned?" He asked lightly.

"Yes," Kotetsu responded, with an unnecessarily large grin.

"I wonder if dad's still up." Naruto then grimaced, "I hope he doesn't make me write mission reports."

"You aren't going to be skipping on it this time," Sasuke raised an eyebrow, "It's bad enough that our _teacher_ has been palming all of them on _me_."

"Oh, Sasuke-pyon," Obito shook his head, placing a hand over his chest in mock hurt, "Not treating his elders with _any_ respect. I must really inform Itachi. You see, I have arthritis and carpal tunnel syndrome from all the days of my-"

"Save it!" Sasuke snarled, covering his ears.

And none of them noticed the looks that Kotetsu and Izumo were sending them as they walked away. It seemed like just _yesterday,_ that there would be a little girl with pink hair, among them, sighing in response to all the bickering.

" _You guys are all idiots, honestly!_ "

And after parting with Naruto and Sasuke, Obito took a detour down a familiar path. He decided to visit her. He came to a stop. Because someone was already there, and then there was another chakra signature. He could place the first one, not the second.

What on earth was Kakashi doing at the monument at 4 in the morning? It was far too early for _anything_. He stepped onto training grounds seven.

"Oi, Kakashi - " He stopped.

The Hatake turned around to look at him with rather _wide_ eyes. Wide surprised eyes.

And then whoever was at the monument, bent over the stone, over a certain column.

She turned around to look at him. Whoever it was, slowly brought her eyes up to meet his.

And he caught sight of rather _bright_ viridian eyes. She pushed her hood back, and her long _pink_ hair tumbled out.

He stopped for a few seconds, eyes widening.

" _Sakura?!"_

* * *

"You are truly one interesting girl, Sakura Haruno."

Orochimaru sighed as he gazed down at the carnage on the ground. There was a single sword with a jeweled hilt amidst of it all, driven into the ground.

Tayuya was gazing at the mess, eyes wide.

"I don't think it was an intruder," Orochimaru continued, with a hint of mirth in his tone, "I think it was quite the opposite. Maybe we need to get that alarm checked?"

Kimimaro didn't say anything as he crossed his arms over his chest. He had his eyes closed, silent.

"Kabuto-kun's demise was quite unfortunate," the Saanin was mostly speaking to himself as he walked up to the sword and pulled it out of the ground. He examined the bloody tip and wiped in with the hem of his robe, "He made for quite a good assistant, and excellent one in fact. His only flaw was his misjudgement of his experiment."

"But I do wonder what will happen next, isn't it all so exciting?"

He hummed to himself, there were only three possible outcomes of the situation.

The first outcome was that she was possibly dead.

The second outcome was that she had broken out and gone rogue.

And the third outcome was that she had gotten some _help_.

And still speaking to himself, he smirked.

"I do wonder what _he'll_ do now that the kitten has grown some claws."

* * *

 _A/N: There's only one replication of the sharingan in the novels- Gaara Hiden, her name was Shijima. Also incidentally related to Orochimaru (of course). The replication was failed, but she would be able to paralyze and distort chakra flow. Considering the genetics of the situation, I assume it would be insanely hard to reproduce._

 _Also, the previous chapters were far from satisfactory, mainly because I felt like my attention was waning as was my interest in the story. I don't really claim to be an expert at canon reimagining, I've altered quite a bit of it, added new techniques that you can learn._

 _There's a lot of sentence structure errors in the previous chapters and I have nothing to attribute that to other than my own apathy._

 _Just incase anyone didn't get the whole biology thing. Sorry if I fuck up the genetics of the situation, eheheheh._

 _So her immune system was too weak to fight off the "virus" that they modified the Uchiha DNA into. And the senjutsu chakra in her body was constantly altering her DNA, sort of like a surgeon's hands. Sort of like Kabuto's whole powerup by injecting DNA into his body- etc etc_  
 _Trauma is used as a mechanism to activate the sharingan. But Sakura's inner kept pushing away the trauma. Her manner of dealing with it is giving "no reaction". Finally when she decided to let go of all of it and fight back- that's when her sharingan finally got activated._  
 _So nope, no transplants._

 _Reviews, questions, flames, cookies?_

 _DECEMBER 18 REUPLOAD._

 _CJ: Thank you for the encouragement over the months and for your support. I don't know if you'll see this but either ways that's an interesting take on her character. I've always pictured her in my head as a character who never had a sense of stability of morals. She's written as a critique of Konoha, thus far. But as for her psychologies, she's two people at once for a good reason. Think of being someone who cares, gets hurt – and then someone who's being hurt too much and grows a back-bone (kaneki)._

 _I feel like she's at a good spot right now for future development._

 _You'll also find that she's "focusing" on the present, a bit of advice from her dear old sensei that really went a long way. Also, two and a half years of a very hostile environment has a profound impact on her character. The thing is, she's also a person who's had a hard life in general – she's stopped looking at ideals, not good, not bad. Everything is just the way it is. What are you going to do about it?_

 _I think I might also start focusing on other characters at this point and slowly move the plot. Oh and it might actually follow a normal timeline heh_


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